Screen Readers for GNOME and KDE?

mingthemerciless asks: "The company I work for is developing accessible solutions for the visually impaired. Right now we are working on (yet another?)a screen reader for windows, but a linux version is on the drawing board...Linux screen readers like Speakup and Emacspeak either are console only or create virtual desktops. Is it viable to have a 'what you hear is what is on the screen' screenreader like JAWS on the current Linux desktop environments Like GNOME 2.0 or KDE 3.0?"

Comments

Text to Speech is a Cludge

[gmhowell]

The CLI is far more efficient for blind users. Particularly those with hearing loss. Learning the one system (a Braille TTY) allows the blind person to read, and insures it won't have to be learned at a later date if the hearing should go. The first point isn't specious; there are studies showing that text to speech 'solutions' are leading to a lack of reading ability amongst the blind. They more or less prove that listening to a book on tape is not the same as reading it, whether in type or in Braille.

All that said, I wish you luck. And let me add a caveat: good luck getting the project adopted. In my experience, government agencies aren't interested in anything but Windows. Whatever you come up with will have to be able to be set up by the end user or some helpful geek.