Blind vs. mainstream distros

[Linux for blind general discussion]

According to Chris
# When I maintained Talking Arch, I tested every release with at least one
# boot to make sure that it came up talking.  I'm sure Kyle and Kelly do
# the same.

Absolutely. In fact, I build the TalkingArch iso after being sure my 
working copy is in sync with the upstream Archiso git repository. The 
first thing I do then is write it to a USB drive and boot it up on bare 
metal that has two capable sound cards. I have to be absolutely sure 
that it correctly plays the recorded message and the single card beeps, 
as early on, I tested on virtual hardware and didn't know that the 
pick-a-card functionality wasn't built until after the release, so some 
users had a less than usable image. Once I have tested what I can and 
find that it works, I detach-sign it and upload it to the hosting 
server, and I send the link to Kelly for him to test. He tests the boot 
again, especially with regard to braille, and he also occasionally 
catches any problem I missed. If he finds that everything works, he 
detach-signs the iso, and it is then ready for release, which at that 
point only involves a very small modification to the download page, 
creation of the torrent and whitelisting it in the tracker, and of 
course announcing the release via the various channels. All this said, 
although testing takes the longest to complete, it is indeed the most 
important part of the process, and is worth the time to get it right. 
Sad but true, accessibility does sometimes suffer from incomplete 
testing, due to the combination of a lack of testers and a lack of 
awareness of how the optional accessibility should be working.
~Kyle