GNOME 2.4 desktop to include first editions of assistive technologies

[Peter Korn <peter korn sun com>]

Greetings,

The Sun Accessibility team is delighted to inform you that the GNOME 
2.4.0 desktop release, planned for mid-September 2003, is slated to 
include the first editions of two assistive technologies: the 
Gnopernicus screen reader/magnifier and the GOK dynamic on-screen 
keyboard.  Support for people with disabilities has been a key goal and 
focus of the GNOME 2 desktop platform, and successive releases have 
included increasing support for accessibility.  With 2.4.0, users will 
be able to evaluate GNOME with assistive technologies.

The editions of Gnopernicus and GOK that will be part of GNOME 2.4 are
well along in their development cycle; however the GNOME accessibility 
community -- and specifically BAUM Retec AG and the University of 
Toronto Adaptive Technology Resource Centre who are the maintainers of 
these projects -- feel that Gnopernicus and GOK need further testing and 
development before they are ready for production use by people with 
disabilities.  With Gnopernicus and GOK in GNOME 2.4, it will be easy 
for a large audience to explore these assistive technologies and 
provide feedback to their developers.  Essentially this is a large, 
public beta test of the GNOME desktop assistive technologies.

To review the GNOME 2.4 development schedule, please visit:

   http://www.gnome.org/start/2.3/


About GNOME
===========

The GNOME project includes a graphical desktop user environment and a 
set of user interface libraries.  GNOME is included in a number of 
GNU/Linux distributions (such as those from RedHat, SuSE, Ximian, Mandrake, 
etc.) and it will become the standard user environment for the Sun 
desktop.  The GNOME 2 desktop includes full support for mouseless 
operation from the keyboard, and a themeing mechanism that ships with 
several custom designed themes for high- and low-contrast use, as well 
as large print, providing support for a variety of vision impairments.  
Finally, the GNOME 2 desktop includes a built-in accessibility 
framework, supported by the key desktop applications, which provides 
rich, detailed information about all of the user interface elements on 
the screen.  The Gnopernicus screen reader/magnifier and GOK on-screen 
keyboard are two assistive technologies in development that utilize this 
framework.

For more information on GNOME, please visit:

   http://www.gnome.org

For more information about the GNOME Accessibility Project, please 
visit:

   http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gap



The Gnopernicus screen reader/magnifier
=======================================

Gnopernicus is an open source screen reader/magnifier that enables users 
with limited vision, or no vision, to use the GNOME 2 desktop and GNOME 
applications effectively. By providing automated focus tracking and full 
screen magnification, Gnopernicus aids low-vision GNOME users, and its 
screen reader features will allow low-vision and blind users to access a 
large range of applications via magnification, speech and braille output.

BAUM Retec AG (http://www.baum.de/) is guiding Gnopernicus development, 
and is also the principal author and project maintainer.  BAUM has been
developing screen reading and magnification software, as well as other
software and hardware products for the blind, for over 20 years.  The 
company's current products include the POET reading machine, the Vario 
40, Vario 80, and DM 80 plus Braille displays, the Galileo screen 
magnifier for Windows NT, the Virgo screen reader for Windows & Windows 
NT, and the Visio low-vision workstation.

More information about Gnopernicus can be found at:

   http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gap/AT/Gnopernicus

and also at:

   http://www.baum.ro/gnopernicus.html



The GOK dynamic on-screen keyboard
==================================

GOK is an open source, dynamic on-screen keyboard that enables users to
control their computer without having to rely on a standard keyboard or
mouse.  Supporting the majority of single-switch devices already on the
market, GOK allows users with limited voluntary movement to completely
control and interact with their GNOME 2 desktop via one or more 
alternative input devices, choosing from a wide range of input 
techniques and configurations.  These input methods may be controlled by 
actions such as blowing and sipping to activate a pneumatic switch, an 
eye blink and/or directed gaze with an eye tracking system, head 
movement, muscle contractions, or limb movements.

Using innovative dynamic keyboard strategies, and leveraging the 
built-in accessibility framework of GNOME 2, GOK makes desktop and 
application control and interaction tremendously more efficient for 
users with severe physical impairments.  GOK directly presents on the 
dynamic keyboard the users' menu options, toolbar choices, and text 
manipulation commands, thereby saving the user the time and frustration 
of having to enter lengthy series of keyboard sequences to invoke those 
commands.  GOK also includes a word completion dictionary to speed text 
entry.

The Adaptive Technology Resource Centre (http://atrc.utoronto.ca/) is
guiding GOK development, and is also the principal author and project
maintainer. The University of Toronto's ATRC research and development 
lab brings strong leadership to the project with expertise in
alternative input devices and software, and also a sincere passion 
regarding accessibility issues. The team has already produced a 
full-featured onscreen keyboard for another platform.

More information about GOK can be found at:

   http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gap/AT/GOK

and also at:

   http://www.gok.ca



On behalf of the Sun Microsystems & the GNOME Accessibility team,

Peter Korn
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
http://www.sun.com/access