Re: [orca-list] A question about web browsing.

[Michael Whapples <mwhapples aim com>]

There are various accessible distros of Linux, Oralux (www.oralux.org) I
believe is aimed at the new comer to linux.

There are others which aren't necessarily designed specifically for the
blind, but have suitable features and software, eg. grml (www.grml.org)
which comes with speakup and software speech, and while being a liveCD
distro can be used to go to a full debian system.

While I know this list is aimed at Orca which is a GUI screen reader and
there may be plenty who disagree with what I will say, I have heard some
argue for a blind person who has never used a computer before, the
command line is easier to learn, and in many cases can be better. I have
to say that I mainly only use gnome for stuff I can't do in the text
console (normally those awful websites that require firefox because of
what I classify as poor design (because they use features so specific to
certain browsers that they are unlikely to work on anything the author
didn't test it with)).

On another note, if you do create a custom distro, you may want to make
it have various user experience levels, eg. those who just want e-mail
or to shop online might either get confused or put off by so many
options when they only need a few, but more experienced computer users
will probably want greater access to the system than options like
"e-mail", "internet", "word processor".

From
Michael Whapples
On Sat, 2007-06-16 at 14:13 +0100, DAVID KNIGHT wrote:
> Thanks for the feedback, I totally agree that the ideal solution is to
> have a mainstream distro which will be everything to everyone but in
> reality that is just not possible. That is exactly why there are so
> many flavours of linux out there and that is one reason why I love
> linux so much. 
>  
> I approached the local blind centre initially because I was frustrated
> that many of my patients don't have the large sums of money required
> for visually impaired software/hardware and they were unaware of the
> possibilities of opensource software. I initially showed Ubuntu linux
> to the blind centre as it has a plethora of disability options and is
> fairly easy to use. The problem I found is that only one person out of
> the 97 partially sighted or blind users taking computer
> classes actually uses linux, and the vast majority are elderly and
> only wish to use their computers for a few simple tasks (word
> processing, internet, E-mails, photoviewing and simple games). As well
> as supplying software with plenty of accessibility options to the
> resource centre I have also now got to provide software which is very
> easy to use for someone who is new to computers. Whilst I found it was
> quite easy for me to configure a Ubuntu desktop into something usable,
> a customised Ubuntu CD is what I'm aiming to provide. 
>  
> With simple customisation tools now available for
> Ubuntu (reconstructor and uck) it's something that is fairly easy to
> do and will benefit a large number of the visually impaired.
>
> With the greatest respect, many users don't care what software they're
> using as long as it is easy to use and works. They commonly have a
> particular goal in mind (eg one elderly lady wanted to be able to do
> her shopping on the internet, another simply wanted to use e-mails).
> These applications provide tremendous quality of life improvements to
> these people and I want to help these people achieve their goals. 
>  
> As a healthcare professional with reasonable IT knowledge, I find it
> frustrating that opensource software exists which will help them but
> that is not currently in a form accessible to them. I suppose the
> commercial software that most closely resembles my goal is Guide
> http://www.softwareexpress.co.uk/ which essentially adapts the windows
> environment to one suitable for the visually impaired.
>  
> Finally, I would be very grateful if you or anyone else could provide
> me with the name of a distribution which specifically provides
> accessibility options for the partially sighted/blind and who are also
> new to Linux/computing as I couldn't find one. I have no wish to go to
> great effort only to replicate someone else's work!