What is a reasonable minimum system for Graphical UNIX accessibility? [was Re: for educational purposes...]

[Peter Korn <Peter Korn Sun COM>]

Greetings,

An interesting topic has come up out of this thread, and I'd like to turn it 
into a general question.

What is a reasonable minimum system for graphical UNIX accessibility (which, 
for now, means GNOME but will hopefully soon mean KDE)?  The majority world 
doesn't have the money that many have in the west, and likewise doesn't have 
governments that have programs to purchase AT for people with disabilities 
(e.g. Department of Rehab in the U.S., many others across Europe).

By doing everything (or virtually everything - Java excepted) FOSS (and Java a 
free download from a cost perspective), we have dramatically lowered the 
barrier of entry.  Instead of having to pay $50-$200 for your OS (bundled vs. 
standalone), $50-$500 for your office suite (bundled vs. standalone), and as 
much as $1,100 for your screen reader - you get all of this somewhere between 
free and $100 (the $100 comes with at least installation support).

But there is still the hardware cost, and the installed base of that hardware.

We clearly need a sound card or some sort, or a serial port, for audio.  We 
clearly need a serial port or USB port for Braille.  Sun has a minimum of 
256MB RAM for the Java Desktop System - a requirement we inherit from SuSE, 
but practically when you look at running big apps this seems appropriate to 
me.  Magnification today works with any video card, but if we want to move to 
COMPOSITE, that will require a relatively modern card with ~8-16MB RAM minimum 
on it (I believe these can be had for ~$30 retail in the U.S.).  Is this a 
reasonable requirement, or for price & installed base must we continue to 
support (and strive to improve the functionality of) our existing 
magnification approach?

What other minimum requirements do we have, and how reasonable are they?


Regards,

Peter Korn
Sun Accessibility team