TDD program for Linux

T. Joseph CARTER knghtbrd at bluecherry.net
Tue Nov 22 20:47:03 UTC 2005


That is why I do not consider speech to be a form of literacy.  A person
needs access to the word as a collection of letters rather than just as a
single entity.  That's not even considering things like sentance and
paragraph structure, punctuation, usage, and mechanics.  These things are
important for both reading and writing.

It is amusing then that this project I'm working on calls essentially for
speech output with screen visuals being essentially an afterthought.  Now
for me, if you make the font big enough for what is displayed, I could
still call it literacy.  Of course, I intend to be wearing a blindfold
when I test the software for anything but what's on the screen.  Much of
the list who likes the idea of emacspeak but can't seem to actually
tollerate emacs on a regular basis would like my little project if and
when it moves further along, I think.

At this point I am trying to get myself an emacspeak speech server that
isn't eflite.  *shudder*  I want quality speech I can actually stand to
use, thank you!  I've got one mostly finished for my Mac that uses the
Macintalk API.


As to the matters of literacy and what we must do to be both blind and
successful, the philosophy I was raised with is not precisely that of the
NFB, but it is mostly compatible with it.  To your acquiantance who is
losing his vision, I would say that it is important--crucial in fact--that
he get some new glasses if he still can for the time being, but begin
learning the skills to maintain his independence now, even if he doesn't
quite need them yet.  What could possibly be worse than to wake up one day
and realize that over the years you've lost everything and now have to
depend on other people for even the most basic things.

I recently met such a man myself on a bus--he'd recently lost all of his
vision and had gotten some rudimentary mobility training from the Oregon
Commission for the Blind, but he was surprised to find that I lived in an
apartment by myself.  Don't I have a caretaker to cook, pick up after me,
make sure the laundry is properly sorted, etc?  I laughed and said, "Nah,
I'm not married."  Several women on the bus were quite amused by that, so
I assume they are married.  *smile*  All I could do was give him a couple
of bits of contact information.  I don't know if he used them or not.

Like the guy on the bus, your acquaintance has the choice to lose his
freedom or to refuse to give it up.  If you can sucessfully make him aware
of that without alienating him in the process, I bet he will choose the
latter option.  The trick is how to do it without alienating him, and that
is an answer I don't have since I don't know the guy.  *grin*


On Tue, Nov 22, 2005 at 08:13:54AM -0500, Janina Sajka wrote:
> Yes, I do understand. I have myself observed my spelling grow from poor
> to awful in the 30 or so years I've now lived since my last days with
> print.
> 
> I am these days chatting with an individual from the DC area LUG who's
> losing sight. I'm trying to get him to be smart and think of how to
> succeed with speech (and maybe a little braille) while he can still.
> But, the guy isn't ready. He spends his time ranting about what isn't,
> how the glasses aren't cutting it, etc., etc.

-- 
"We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, therefore, is not an act,
but a habit."
	-- Aristotle




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