Handwriting, voice recognition, sign language recognition, face recognition, special keyboards all good.
Large & small screens, speech output, Braille, 3d all good.
Different devices, different users, different situations, different tasks call for software that can adapt it's interface.
There is no easy way for a programmer to take advantage of these different scenarios now, or easily write software that adapts to new environments.
This sort of thing could be done at the component level in a toolkit. It would be a book the mobile and disabled users. You could use the same software, and programmers could more easily write their software for several audiences.
I scoured the internet with Google before the show looking for "Linux conference" etc. and didn't even find it. I was bummed when I found out I'd missed a great show!
With all the object oriented toolkits, maybe people will be smart enough to make Qt/GTk/Mozilla be able to accept multiple/alterative input-output streams elegantly. Software components like menus, edit boxes and toolbars will take responsibility for these various kinds of use. I'd like to work on that kind of project.
I'm being funded to help make an office package useable by blind and visually impaired (V.I.) users, and I haven't chosen which office environment to work with yet. Making software useable by V.I. users is a very similar problem to adapting software for mobile computer use, where you have limited screen real estate (handheld devices), and possibly no screen at all (as in a car - or as in StarTrek). In the past, people have tried to help V.I. computer users by writing special software that lays on top of Windows programs to try to re-interpret the visual interface into speech output. This is not an easy task - and results in a less than perfect solution. GPL gives the disabled community an opportunity to alter software for a variety of environments from the inside out. The added flexibility only enhances the desktop users experience - for example, a better keyboard and speech interface. Personally, I don't like having to move my hands from the keyboard to the mouse and back. As a sighted user, I would still to do some basic computing while on a roadtrip - such as reading, writing and browsing. It's not as complex as it sounds - the experience of blind computer users could be helpful to get us there. From a philosphical point of view, it shouldn't matter what input and output device a user wants to use (speech? sign language?) - software should support these alternatives from the core. What I would like to know is - what is KDE's philosophy on disabled and mobile users? Have you had any interaction with users with special needs who want to access the KDE interface? I think this would be an area KDE could attract some really good press - MSWin and StarOffice do little in this area. (StarOffice does nothing, and MS thinly supports disabled users - only enough to keep from being sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act). I think an open source project like KDE could attract some very talented disabled developers who need useable software! Aaron Leventhal
Slashdot Mirror
Handwriting, voice recognition, sign language recognition, face recognition, special keyboards all good.
Large & small screens, speech output, Braille, 3d all good.
Different devices, different users, different situations, different tasks call for software that can adapt it's interface.
There is no easy way for a programmer to take advantage of these different scenarios now, or easily write software that adapts to new environments.
This sort of thing could be done at the component level in a toolkit. It would be a book the mobile and disabled users. You could use the same software, and programmers could more easily write their software for several audiences.
I scoured the internet with Google before the show looking for "Linux conference" etc. and didn't even find it. I was bummed when I found out I'd missed a great show!
With all the object oriented toolkits, maybe people will be smart enough to make Qt/GTk/Mozilla be able to accept multiple/alterative input-output streams elegantly. Software components like menus, edit boxes and toolbars will take responsibility for these various kinds of use. I'd like to work on that kind of project.
I'm being funded to help make an office package useable by blind and visually impaired (V.I.) users, and I haven't chosen which office environment to work with yet. Making software useable by V.I. users is a very similar problem to adapting software for mobile computer use, where you have limited screen real estate (handheld devices), and possibly no screen at all (as in a car - or as in StarTrek). In the past, people have tried to help V.I. computer users by writing special software that lays on top of Windows programs to try to re-interpret the visual interface into speech output. This is not an easy task - and results in a less than perfect solution. GPL gives the disabled community an opportunity to alter software for a variety of environments from the inside out. The added flexibility only enhances the desktop users experience - for example, a better keyboard and speech interface. Personally, I don't like having to move my hands from the keyboard to the mouse and back. As a sighted user, I would still to do some basic computing while on a roadtrip - such as reading, writing and browsing. It's not as complex as it sounds - the experience of blind computer users could be helpful to get us there. From a philosphical point of view, it shouldn't matter what input and output device a user wants to use (speech? sign language?) - software should support these alternatives from the core. What I would like to know is - what is KDE's philosophy on disabled and mobile users? Have you had any interaction with users with special needs who want to access the KDE interface? I think this would be an area KDE could attract some really good press - MSWin and StarOffice do little in this area. (StarOffice does nothing, and MS thinly supports disabled users - only enough to keep from being sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act). I think an open source project like KDE could attract some very talented disabled developers who need useable software! Aaron Leventhal