Re: A spotlight on the need for basic reading and writing support in GNOME

[Willie Walker <William Walker Sun COM>]

Hi Mats:

You're definitely very welcome here and it's a pleasure to have you 
join.  Thanks!

What I'm hearing from you is the critical need to support users in need 
of basic reading and writing support.  I'm also seeing a couple possible 
suggestions: 1) write a new assistive technology, and/or 2) enhance Orca.

I would like to take a step back and focus on the user base you have 
identified.  In your experiences, what are the common tasks that users 
in this group need support with, what are the common solutions, what 
solutions work, what solutions don't work, etc.?

I realize you have a condensed form of a features list in your "Needed" 
column.  So, perhaps we might start with expanding details of those 
particular features and providing examples of how/why they are used?

Thanks again for joining!

Will

mats lundalv vgregion se wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> My name is Mats Lundalv (employed at the DART AAC and AT centre, as well 
> as at the Swedish Institute for Special Needs Education (SIT) in 
> Goteborg, Sweden). I'm a new voice in this forum, but have been 
> encouraged by Steeve Lee and David Bolter to post my thoughts here, 
> following from the discussions in the Oatsoft email forum.
>
> My main reason for writing now is to advocate for putting the spotlight 
> more on one or more of all the good things that are found – and possibly 
> a bit hidden – among all the good things down in the 
> http://live.gnome.org/Accessibility/GetInvolved 
> <http://live.gnome.org/Accessibility/GetInvolved> listing. I would like 
> to see them among the high priority tasks.
>
> The background is a survey we did at SIT comparing the accessibility and 
> AT support situation for the WinXP, MaxOSX and Ubuntu-GNU/Linux 
> platforms. We found that the big problem with the GNU/Linux environment 
> is its total lack of proper support for the largest groups of users with 
> accessibility problems - that is; users in need of basic reading and 
> writing support (other than users with pure visual impairments)!
>
>
> This is the reason why we cannot currently recommend the free and open 
> source platforms for schools from an inclusion and accessibility point 
> of view, as students with reading/writing and learning disabilities - 
> ranging between 5-15 % of the students in different educational 
> environments - are left without proper assistive support.
>
> If, on the other hand, these needs were reasonably well supported in the 
> basic GNOME - GNU/Linux environment, this would immediately make it a 
> very attractive alternative for the educational areas. This is a 
> strategic issue for the wider acceptance of the free software 
> alternatives for the educational systems – and in general.
>
> I would really like to challenge this forum to consider ways to start 
> addressing this problem now, rather than leaving it further down on the 
> wish list for another round.
>
> The question is where and how to start of course. A few points:
>
> Proper tts support for these needs is the fundamental thing. This could 
> either be taken on as a separate project, based on existing tools for 
> Windows – as indicated in the "Dyslexia and Learning Disabilities" point 
> in the list etc.
> Another idea would be to look at the possibility of building on all the 
> good functionality of Orca and refurnish that for providing basic 
> reading and writing support. I'd like to see your views on that 
> approach. An indication of what's needed and what Orca has to offer, and 
> would additionally need:
>
> Needed:                                                                 
>     In Orca
> *Basic settings:*
> Options to shut the speech up and                         - no – context 
> info reading etc cannot be disabled
> just provide the support needed                             as far as I 
> can see
> *Keyboard input echoing:* ...                                 - 
> basically supported ...
> key-by-key on/off                                                       
> - yes
> word-by-word on/off                                                  - yes
> sentence-by-sentence – after
> punctuation/new line on/off                                       - no
> *Reading tools:* ...
> Key_command_controlled: ...
> whole text (with reading cursor)                                 - yes 
> (cursor?)
> line-by-line (with reading cursor)                               - yes
> word-by-word (with reading cursor)                          - yes
> sentence-by-sentence (reading cursor)                    - no
>
> GUI-based: ...
> ... above reading tools through
> a reading toolbar                                                     
>      - no
> ... + read highlighted text ...
> by double-clicking word                                               - no
> by copying to clipboard                                                - no
>
> *More demanding GUI-based additions:*
> read text under mouse cursor – in menus and dialogues, in web pages 
> (primarily) and other text content (as far as possible)... (on/off by 
> key command)
>
> That's a picture of the tts needs and current support by Orca. Would it 
> be possible and attractive to consider this for the Orca team: Either a 
> special slimmed-down and complemented Orca version, or starting a 
> complemented Orca in an alternative reading/writing support mode. I 
> think I would prefer the later option if feasible, as it could allow for 
> more options to support users with multiple impairments.
>
> Looking forward with some curiosity to your reactions to these issues. 
> Unfortunately I cannot personally offer any help with coding in addition 
> to ideas, functional specs contributions and follow-up testing and 
> feedback.
>
> I will be keen continue to do all I can to promote support of different 
> kinds for the accessibility and AT work on the free software platforms – 
> within my professional environments. There's a lot left to do to raise 
> awareness there.
>
>
> There's a lot more to be said about other issues related to the one I've 
> concentrated on here – like wordlist/prediction support, higher quality 
> speech options, the lack of a DAISY Player and state of the art OCR etc, 
> but I'll stop my too lengthy writing here.
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Mats
>
>
> Mats Lundälv
> DART, reg.hab., Drottning Silvias barn- och ungdomssjukhus, SU
> och
> Specialpedagogiska institutet 
> Kruthusgatan 17, SE-411 04 Göteborg, Sweden
> www.dart-gbg.org <http://www.dart-gbg.org> ,  www.sit.se <http://www.sit.se>
> tel: +46 (0)31 7398093,   mobil:+46 (0)705 298093, 
> fax: +46 (0)31 7398090
> E-post: mats lundalv vgregion se 
> <mailto:mats lundalv vgregion se> eller mats lundalv sit se 
> <mailto:mats lundalv sit se>
>
>
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