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They ARE involved. They've kicked off a dialogue and raised the awareness level of the issue of accessibility in open-sourced apps. Writing code isn't the only way to participate in the open source movement.

There is also Oralux

An OS for the blind should be command-driven. It might be argued that menus were designed precisely so users would not have to memorize cryptic commands. But for a blind user, it would be terribly inefficient (read, time-consuming) to be forced to listen to menu choices being read back. A command-driven OS would require an initially steeper learning curve in terms of memorizing keyboard short-cuts, but the effort is rewarded as soon as the user types "rf" for refresh, rather than wait for the text-to-speech (TTS) software to recite (1) Go to Site (2) Save Page (3) Reload Page, etc.

An OS for the blind should be linear rather than spatial. A blind user should not be forced to grope for icons or other clickable hotspots in an invisible desktop. Reducing the number of choices a blind user must make to get a task done makes the OS more rather than user-friendly.

Pasting a screen-reader atop a fancy desktop environment like Gnome or Mac OSX is not the solution. The solution is to get rid of the desktop manager and concentrate on making a better command language interpreter or shell.

Bash, or the B(ourne) A(gain) SH(ell) is already way friendlier to the blind user than Windows XP, Bash has file-name and command completion, which should make it easier to "remember" commands. Just remember the first few letters of a long command and press tab.

There are also a number of FOSS efforts to create the audio equivalent of a desktop. One is emacspeak, which is a lisp program that interfaces with the venerable emacs text editor and kitchen sink.

There are also GNU/Linux distributions geared toward blind users, such as Oralux.

For the people with hearing problems, I think a well designed GUI is the key. We take 70% of our input visually, so it should be easier to overcome the dificulties of a hearing impaired user than those of a user with vision problems.

For those with vision problems, I've found quite a few links on software that will definitely help out. I'd suggest going with Linux because you can write your own stuff or customize something that's already written much easier.
BLINUX
General
ORALUX
ZipSpeak

As far as making an OS from scratch for people with different needs, here's what I'd do: I'd make native support for ASP.net applications. The user would only get HTML output from any program they use, but with different interaction capabilities than the traditional web. HTML is already very sensitive to the needs of the visually and hearing impaired users, therefore, you'd be leveraging technology that already exists.

Oralux is a Knoppix live-CD to facilitate access to GNU/Linux for the visually impaired. The Oralux user interface is based on Emacspeak or Yasr, and has FLITE and EFM (Festival/MBROLA version).

I don't know if it's the same technology, but there is a Linux ditribution named "Oralux" :
Audio GNU/Linux distro for visually impaired persons

site: http://oralux.org/
DistroWatch: http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=oral ux

Oren Maurer

hey, there is even a distro that is suited for this.oralux

I work in an assistive technology facility and most of the screen reading software we see is Windows-based. JAWS has been around since the Windows 3.1 days, so it's got a distinct advantage in both market share and code maturity. As open source software gains market share, they may consider porting JAWS to Linux, but so far they don't seem interested.

There are a number of open source projects out there targeted at creating accessible software, such as the Gnome Accessibility Project.
There's also Oralux, a liveCD distro that supports brailleterms and voice output using Emacspeak.

I find the Oralux approach very appealing since it's the first step toward blind users being able to carry a complete set of accessibility tools around on a CD that will work on stock x86 hardware. Students can access school computers without the need for accessibility tools actually being installed on the machine as long as the curriculum materials are not in a format that requires proprietary software.

What would really be interesting is to see Oralux boot from a memory card like Damn Small Linux does. Accessibility on a keychain would be rather groovy, and it would free up the CD drive.

As an engineer of 30+ years who has recently (ine the last 2 years) become visually impaired, I have looked at, tried, and cobbled together numerous solutions. Here are my observations and recommendations. Keep in mind that Visually Impaired and blind are two different things, and with an aging baby boomer population visual impairments of one sort or another will be on the increase in the coming years.
One of the Linux distro's worth watching is Oralux http://www.oralux.org/, a bootable Knoppix based live CD distro that contains an audible desktop and includes braille drivers. I've had mixed luck with this distro depending on what kind of hardware you attempt to boot it on.
Personally, I use two types of system configurations to access computer based resources.
On my laptop (Win XP PRO) I use ZoonText http://www.aisquared.com/ which is a little expensive, but does the job well.
On my desktop(s) (Win XP Pro &/or Win 98) I have a very inexpensive system. A second monitor on which I place the standard windows screen magnifier. Add Virtual Magnifying Glass http://magnifier.sourceforge.net/ and Natural Voice Reader http://www.naturalreaders.com/ at a cost of $0.00/$39.95/$69.95 depending on the version. This combination works very well for a desktop system. Add Firefox, Thunderbird, Cygwin, Putty and a few other tools and you can easily use the Web and administer your Linux boxes.
On the Linux boces (I have several) I share a 19" or 32" monitor via a KVM switch. This allows reasonable access to a consol. When running X-Windows you can simply add additional entries in the XF86.config (or it's equivalent). This lets you select the zoomable features provided by programs like ZoomText. There are a lot of other pieces availble for Linux (like Festival) but unfortunately none of these are available in a comprehensive, eacy to install set. This makes it hard for the non-geek to easily install & use these tools.
This is one of the biggest areas that M$ Windows has it over Linux and OSS for the time being.

http://oralux.org/ : Audio GNU/Linux distro for vision impaired persons (Knoppix based). Even if you're not interested in the distro itself, you might want to look at the various components they use. From their Roadmap: "We wish to follow a humble and pragmatic approach. First with Oralux 1.00, targeting users who know GNU/Linux or who are able to learn it. Release 2.00 will more concern the persons who have no particular skill to use a computer, whereas the computer would be useful for them."

Yes it is limited. It is designed for people like your grandmother, who just want to do stuff and not have to learn about the whole computer. The alternative is to get a speaking version of linux like Oralux. More power, more options, more to learn.

The big drawback with Blindux is that as far as I know it is only in Spanish. Actually there is an OS designed for audio, developed in Brazil as open source. But it's only in portuguese. Come on english-speakers, catch up...

Blind + Linux = BLINUX. This is the best solution in the long run and it doesn't cost anything, unlike solutions from Microsoft and other proprietary software. I wish you the best luck. The command-line interface is ideal for blind users.

Interestingly (but a tad OT) is that nethack can be configured for blind users as well. All work and no play makes Johnny a dully boy. Other games for the blind would probably include the many, many MUDs out there.

Not only MUDs but also future MMORPG games from The WorldForge Project where people will be able to play with each other on-line on the same servers and in the same worlds using different clients, including 2D isometric, full-3D OpenGL and entirely text-based ones. Not to even mention that thanks to Emacspeak a blind person can play even Tetris. This is not off-topic at all.

And to demonstrate how interfaces such as Emacspeak are impressive and important not only for blind users but for the general public, I am planning to develop a fully audio-desktop based car audio system, most probably using Oralux GNU/Linux, a Knoppix customization with Emacspeak user interface, with emphasis on making as much information and entertainment (music, games, WWW, etc.) accessible to the driver with absolutely no display distracting from the road, which in my opinion is the very direction every car manufacturer should follow to make cars safer. Projects like Emacspeak, BLinux and Oralux freely available make such a system trivial to build using an old laptop hidden somewhere under the seat, some cables and a simple input system, with almost no custom software needed.

I have been thinking about it since I first saw the most stupid idea in the history of car audio systems, i.e. text display of local traffic-related messages in real time. I thought that it is utterly moronic, since such messages should be spoken and in fact even the number of CD track I change to should be spoken instead of displayed in a place I have to look instead of focusing on the road. Hence the idea of full audio car audio system.

The Speakup Project produces a screen reader that is used in the above distro.

There is also a Knoppix based distro called Oralux, that will also support braille terminals (these are usually one line at a time vt100 emulators) connected to a serial port.

I know this does not solve the map problem, but this, along with Links, for example, will give any vision impaired person far more tools that are available in Windows, for instance.