Solaris 10 released, with accessibility built-in! Also FreeTTS 1.2 released. (fwd)

[Kenny Hitt]

Hi.  I'm not a developer, so my info is probably not complete.
Hopefully, developers of Brltty and Yasr can jump in and correct me.

Since Brltty isn't in the kernel, it might already work on Solaris.  The
same is true for Yasr.

Speakup is a completely different animal.  Even if the license allows
it, it isn't likely you will see speakup in Solaris any time soon.  I
believe the license for the Freebsd kernel would allow speakup, but
there isn't speakup patches for it yet.  The big reason is it will take
a lot of time and effort to create the speakup kernel patches for
Freebsd.  So far, no developer has been willing to make the commitment of
time and effort to write such patches.  Developers of Yasr and Brltty
please don't take my next statement the wrong way, but writing kernel
patches is more challenging than writing user space screen readers.
Programs running in user space can do things that just aren't a good
idea in the kernel.  One example is any task that takes a large amount
of time.  Time used by a screen reader in kernel space is time lost to
the whole system, while time used by a user space screen reader only
effects the performance of the screen reader.

Hope this helps.
          Kenny
	  
On Fri, Feb 25, 2005 at 10:37:55AM -0500, Janina Sajka wrote:
> I wonder if the new, "open," license of Solaris will now allow us to put
> Speakup and/or Brltty into the Solaris kernel? That would certainly lead
> the way to an accessible installation for blind users. As you point out,
> Michael, that's a critical componant for community acceptance.
> 
> Michael Malver writes:
> > One of the things I like about speakup is the ability to install the os
> > myself.  I am totally blind, and own a dectalk.  I know nothing of Solaris,
> > but would be greatly indebted to anyone who could do a realistic evaluation
> > of how "accessible" this is.  The press release looks great, but most people
> > I know who have used Linux say the x-windows access with screen reading
> > isn't ready for common use.  Has sun created something in terms of screen
> > reading beyond what is available in Linux??
> > I'd love to install the os, but want a person who doesn't work for sun to
> > evaluate the usefulness of the accessibility features from the perspective
> > of a totally blind person.
> > Michael
> > p.s. I truly hope it doesn't appear I'm flaming the wonderful work on access
> > sun is doing. I'm simply concerned as to how usable this is before I invest
> > limited time.
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Blinux-list mailing list
> > Blinux-list at redhat.com
> > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
> 
> -- 
> 
> Janina Sajka				Phone: +1.202.494.7040
> Partner, Capital Accessibility LLC	http://www.CapitalAccessibility.Com
> 
> Chair, Accessibility Workgroup		Free Standards Group (FSG)
> janina at freestandards.org		http://a11y.org
> 
> If Linux can't solve your computing problem, you need a different problem.
> 
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