FYI - Command Line Programs for the Blind

[Linux for blind general discussion]

And that's the problem, you can't convence FOSS with just "oh you can work
for the government" or something. At least, the amount of accessibility
work the desktop environments have put in shows they don't care about that.
FOSS has no way for regular users to get improvements in. Many FOSS devs do
this for their own enjoyment, so they're like "Nope, it's my project, I do
what I want with it, when I want." I was chatting with some Gnome
developers as on their Matrix service, and asked if there is anything I, as
a user with only 0.002% knowledge of Python, could do. They said no. I'd
have to be a developer to help them. And with Mate having so many issues
with Chrome-based apps, Pidgin crashing when writing a long message, stuff
like that, on Fedora 35 Mate, I just couldn't stick with that. I mean, I'd
love to. If I could see, I'd be using KDE and all that good stuff. But nope.
Devin Prater
r.d.t.prater at gmail.com




On Wed, Apr 13, 2022 at 9:32 PM Linux for blind general discussion <
blinux-list at redhat.com> wrote:

> I don't have anything against projects specifically targetting blind
> end users, or any other niche for that matter, but I do think its
> better to have accessibility seamlessly integrated into mainstream
> products instead of trying to maintain a separate ecosystem of goods
> and services that cater only to a tiny minority... Sadly, many vendors
> only care about satisfying the lowest common denominator and little
> short of government sanctions will convince them accessibility is even
> worth considering, and even when vendors pay lip service to caring
> about accessibility, it can be hard to even find how to give them
> feedback, so even with the downsides(small development teams,
> extremely low bus factors, small user base to spread development costs
> across, etc.), it's easy to feel like "make our own" is the only
> option.
>
> Of course, one nice thing about the FOSS model is that one can
> simultaneously be building their own version of something while trying
> to push their contributions upstream... no idea how well any of the
> mentioned projects made any head way in that regard, and I'm sure
> there was some push back for those that tried, but there's at least
> the option to do both... I like the Adriane accessibility suite that
> comes as part of Knoppix, even if I only really use the console screen
> reader it comes with and its script for launching Fiefox+Orca without
> launching a full desktop, and those are the two main reasons my
> installed system is customized from a Knoppix install and not a Debian
> install... Shame Adriane never got upstreamed to Debian, or that when
> Knoppix had its own repository, I couldn't just add it to my
> sources.list and do a sudo apt-get install adriane on a vanilla Debian
> to get the benefits withou the baggage of Knoppix being primarily a
> live distro.
>
> And to some extent, I do think something needs to be mainstream to
> actually be viable for the disabled. I mean, the Orbit Graffiti sounds
> totally awesome and I'd order one immediately if I had the funds...
> but unless someone develops a tactile-visual display that would appeal
> to the mainstream and could make it's way into a flagship Android or
> iOS device, I think its going to be a very long time before a tactile
> display the average blind person can actually afford becomes a
> reality.
>
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