Re: [kde] jaws for linux ?

The best Linux application for users who are blind is probably T.V. Raman's
emacsspeak, but it's installation is not easy, and it requires the user to
learn emacs commands, to interact with it :P. However, it does ship with full
Aural CSS support.

http://emacspeak.sourceforge.net

Elinks is another web-only speaking browser for Linux:

http://elinks.or.cz/

Since both JAWS and Windows Eyes are, effectively IE plugins, (Windows Eyes
even relies upon the MS Active Accessibility layer, to work) it's virtually
impossible to run them under linux, except via an emulation layer, at which
point, we must ask ourselves "what's the point".

IBM's Nome Page Reader also plugs heavily into the MSAA layer.

Either way you're asking on a KDE list - which is the ultimate reason why
maintaining any conversation about it here is probably futile. KDE is a
*GUI*, and guess what the "G" stands for (no, not 'GNU' ;) ). The very
nature /graphical/ interfaces, like KDE, like GNOME, like Windows or OSX's
'Aqua', is that they're geared towards people who can actually /see/ what's
being presented to them graphically, without any explanational text.

I think users who are blind would be better-served by a distribution which
dispensed with the whole GUI idea, altogether, and designed something for
them, specifically, with a text-based interface that started from their
needs, first, rather than gloming those concerns onto an existing windowing
system, as a semi-functional afterthought (and even the Microsoft's MSAA
stuff is really just this sort of kludge).

These sorts of things need developers to actually /build/ software for them,
however. For instance, did you know that Mac's have shipped with one of the
best text-to-speech synthesisers in the business for /years/... right out of
the box? Free, with the OS - and I mean, way back, before OS X even appeared?
This should mean that OS X should now represent the default choice for users
with visual impairments, as well as all those other users with other problems
reading text, such as people who are dyslexic... Not so, however. It seems
many Mac developers don't even know about the text-converter, either, since
no one ever writes any software for it.

To be honest, I think the same would probably happen in OSS, even if the
GNUSpeak project could ship a decent speech sythn, with a suitable choice of
voices, and multilingual support... Why do all that work, developing that
sublayer, when most developers are spending most of their time perfecting
mouseover effects?

Now, if someone were to actually design a Linux distribution for users who
have visual impairments, /predicated/ upon the idea that a Linux system is an
OS where you can explicitly omit the GUI - and, thereby, build for people
who, by /definition/, don't need it, you'd have a really compelling reason
for users with disabilities to start looking towards GNU software for the
answers to their needs. The problem is that there is a whole sublayer of very
expensive-to-develop software, such as speech synthesis, text-to-speech, and
so on, that needs to build up around GNU before anyone can act on this.

IBM has a whole accessibility subsidiary, called AbilityNet, operating at
their Warwick, UK, campus: IBM are supposed to be a bit Linux-friendly...
Maybe someone should lean on them, and ask them to 'put some loose change
where the food goes in'?

Either way, I think this all goes way beyond what can be discussed on a KDE
list! ;)

On Sunday 29 January 2006 11:40, tyche wrote:
> On Sunday 29 January 2006 02:28 pm, Kevin Krammer wrote:
> > On Sunday 29 January 2006 15:10, Mehmet Fatih AKBULUT wrote:
> > > hi all,
> > > i wonder something and like to ask to you all ;)
> > > is there any project going on for the blind people ?
> > > [like jaws under windows ?]
> >
> > As far as I understand it there is a working group for
> > accessibility across desktop environments and toolkits.
> >
> > The KDE branch of it uses the following mailinglist for
> > discussion, so it might be best to ask your question there:
> >
> > https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-accessibility
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Kevin
>
> there is also a mail list called blinux that deals with it
> too. dont know the url right off hand. good luck in your
> search. have been looking for voice to text/text to voice
> application for awhile now, but have had no luck.
>
> tyche
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