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PC Accessibility Options for the Blind?
Kevlar Gorilla writes "I've had the privilege of working over the summer as a night time security guard and computer tech resident for the CNIB Lake Joseph Centre way up north in Muskoka, Ontario. There are many blind and visually impaired guests that find their way around computers efficiently using programs such as ZoomText, JAWS, and Window Eyes as well as memorizing plenty of keyboard shortcuts. Given a small budget, I've been charged with updating some software and perhaps some hardware too. What newfangled, affordable and recommended text-reading software should we invest in? What new hardware would be a welcome addition? Is there any decent Linux or Mac stuff? What are your experiences with helping the blind or visually impaired with computing and the internet?"
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/universalacce ss/
http://linux-speakup.org/
Both speakup and voiceover are free. Helps a lot when you can't afford the likes of Jaws.
Apple's Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" includes, for free, the screen reader technology they call "VoiceOver".
It is purported to remove the need to see the screen; I haven't used it myself, much, because I'm not blind. The Mac also includes some voice control, which every one on a Mac tries for a week and then quits using, mostly because using the mouse is faster and who likes to hear themselves talk all the time? I don't know how well the voice control stands up for day to day use.
I think it's worth emphasizing that both products are free and included with 10.4. I understand that screen reader technology is usually pretty expensive; since it's now bundled with OS X I wonder if that makes the Mac more cost-effective for your situation vs. PCs with an additional software package required.
You could get BlueTooth or USB headphones and microphones that would improve the performance of both products. And don't forget that you could use the mini with your current keyboards and monitors. There's also the Mac's "ease of use" and minimized need to teach users about internet security, and it seems like it might be a good solution for you.
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$tar -xvf
Hi,
While VoiceOver is a nice addition it really isn't up to the level of JAWS on Windows. For example if you Tab around the "Universal Access" pages of "System Preferences" it doesn't properly announce the names of any elements. All you get is the fact is that you have select "1 of 2" radio buttons. I would be deeply suspicious of any assitive technology where the dialog that turns it on isn't properly accessible.
Also VoiceOver doesn't appear to work well with Java which is a shame. Just bring up a context menu and you will see what I mean. Only a few items are actually read out.
So while I think this has promise I would promote it for day to day use yet.
From experience: Show them a game world of text, and they won't care about productivity anymore.
Before I part with'em: two pennies weigh ~4.996+/-0.014g, have a zinc core, and the face of Lincoln. You can keep 'em.
Assuming that you are willing to use some sort of terminal reader for the blind, I would first suggest linux, since it runs well without a GUI, and the documentation/help also tends to be in text or easily converted to text.
Second: GNU screen. You can set it up to have a list of terminals at the bottom of the screen. So, lets say I'm running bash and w3m under GNU screen, I can have the bottom line of the terminal to say " 12:25 Jun 02 pyng : 0$* w3m 1-$ bash". (pyng is the system name). What is displayed is configurable.
Third: A bunch of CHUI apps. 'w3m' for web browsing. 'slrn' for newsgroups. 'emacs' for editing, or for all of the above. ;) Emacs also has an emacs speak, which is supposed to be nice. There is even CHUI/TTY IM clients and IRC clients.
Fourth: Man doesn't live by bread alone. Telnet and MUDs. Try www.mudconnect.com to find a good list of them. The roguelike 'nethack' (and probably slash'em as well) has instructions on configuring it for the blind. However, roguelikes are incredibly frustrating.
Fifth: Some people claim festival is nice for reading text. I'm not sure. But there is always Project Gutenburg with its text files. Don't forget the many shoutcast servers out there as well. XMMS can be setup to be controlled by keyboard shortcuts, look at xmms-shell.
Disclaimer: I'm not blind. Perhaps the blind prefer voice software. Perhaps there are specialized solutions that work better. But in the end, the only way to know which solution is better is to let the end user try it out.
The GNU zealots proclaim that propreitary software is unethical. However I wonder if they would say propreitary software that clearly does good things like help blind people use computers is unethical. I wonder about other medical equiptment that is propreitary. How unethical it must be to save lives and help people.
A simple setup I tried with a co-worker of my wife, who can see only about 30% of what is considered normal:
A standard PC with a TV output connected to the largest available TV set (about 82cm 16:9). Windows 2000 was set to a very low resolution (720x480), extra large fonts, high contrast, and a large mouse cursor. Together with the build-in Magnifier (Start -> Accessories -> Accessibility -> Magnifier), the system was usable.
A larger TV set (100 cm 4:3) or a beamer capable of projecting a 200 cm image would have been better, but he said he could work with that setup. Some things that would have disturbed me, like the slightly unsharp picture and the low overall quality of the display did not disturb him at all, simply because he can not see those details. He uses the big part of the screen to find the program, then he used the upper part with the magnifer to read the text on screen. He that that there are better magnifier programs available, but they cost a lot of money.
As a nice side-effect, you can use the TV speakers instead of cheap and noisy PC speakers.
Tux2000
Denken hilft.
Accessibility has been the main focus for recent release of KDE.
A few links to relevant pages:
The general tendency is close cooperation between the various projects. No songle project currently offers a complete accessibile solution on Linux, but by combining the different solutions, a lot is possble, and closer cooperation will make even mor ethings possible in the future.
A lot of this cooperation was kicked of at the Unix Accessibility Forum last sumnmer, which the KDE project organised as part of the KDE World Summit.
We are currently busy organising a follow-up event during LinuxTag 2005.
Olaf Schmidt, co-maintainer of the KDE Accessibility Project