Re: Orca a couple questions

["S James S Stapleton" <stapleton 41 osu edu>]

Sorry, but that was completely irrelevant to my questions and concerns. My 
idea for an implementation would be a relatively simple development that 
might help encourage/ease the ability of more software to become windows 
friendly. I never suggested dropping the existing standard, just adding 
another that could actually integrate with the existing standards, making 
things work better. Also, my suggestion was not a non-free suggestion.

As for JAWs, ok, I was probably quite harsh, but after dealing with it on my 
mom's computer, and the issues related therein, I guess I just have very 
high expectations for software. I will agree, in the Windows system, due to 
it's highly graphical nature, and the fact that many people use very custom 
UI components in their development, it's fighting an uphill battle. Due to 
it's nature the *NIX systems make a better starting point for the visually 
impaired, which was why I sent my question to orca - it's as far as I can 
tell from my searching the main serious contender in a *nix environment that 
won't cost a lot of money.

Thank you,
-Jim Stapleton

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jan and Bertil Smark Nilsson" <jbsn tpg com au>
To: "S James S Stapleton" <stapleton 41 osu edu>
Cc: <orca-list gnome org>
Sent: Saturday, February 24, 2007 8:15 AM
Subject: Re: Orca a couple questions


> Good evening,
>
> On Thu, 22 Feb 2007, S James S Stapleton wrote:
>
> > I'm still looking at it, and I had read things a few weeks ago, that
> > suggested orca might be beta quality still, however I want to get some 
> > more
> > information (and make a suggestion if it's not already been
> > implemented/made), partially because I know my mom needs a screen reader
> > (she's blind and stuck with Windows/JAWS, that latter of which is really
> > $2000 pre-alpha software in my experience), and some day I may need a 
> > screen
> > reader myself... Darn genetics, and I'd rather have my BSD system 
> > available
> > to me.
> I wouldn't characterise Jaws as pre-alpha. Although I avoid Windows like 
> the plague, based on thirty years experience of accessing a computer as a 
> blind person, I have to say, that both Jaws, Hal and Window-eyes do a 
> reasonably good job of giving blind people access to Windows. Since they 
> have been around for over ten years, it's very impressive, in my opinion, 
> what the developers of Gnopernicus, LSR and Orca have achieved in only a 
> couple of years. Full marks to these people.
>
> The very nature of a graphical user interface will always be a challenge 
> as far as access for visually impaired people is concerned, be it with 
> braille or speech. However, I'm convinced that the approach adopted by the 
> developers of AT software such as Gnopernicus, LSR and Orca is the right 
> one - and it's free.
>
> Bertil Smark Nilsson