Best of my knowledge is that Speakup is still at http://linux-
speakup.org and the documentation is current accept perhaps referring
to the latest distros that have Speakup enabled installs. There are
modified Redhat packages still around.
Now to tie this back to the Mac, what would be very cool is if there
was a means to build Speakup as a set of modules that could be loaded
at boot on the Mac. I don't think it would be impossible given that
Darwin is the underlying os. Now whether it be Speakup or VO, I think
its possible to have a speaking box from boot to shutdown if someone
wanted this and I'm surprised no one has brought this up as a topic.
Sure would help with the Terminal issue. Of course we'd have to have
software speech or get the hardware synth working, but well its just
a thought and something to add to the mix.
I love mixing it up.grin
Scott
On Mar 20, 2006, at 8:44 PM, Kafka's Daytime wrote:
Perhaps the salient point of the Newsforge article (and I try,
successfully I hope, to tie this back into a reasonably on-topic
point at the end of this post) is that it's very difficult to find
documentation and get help for FOSS in general. Case in point,
original speakup links seem to be dead. There are tutorials
scattered around but most seem out of date or, at the very least,
confusing. All Will Thoms wanted was a list of resources for Linux
access. We seem to agree that those resources are around...but
where are they? It's hard to imagine an average user (and not a
power-user like Cheryl or Travis) understanding the blinux faq:
http://leb.net/blinux/blinux-faq.html and moving easily from there
to unassisted installation. A quick Google search doesn't produce
any obvious answers that I can see (and the same goes for
information on installing Windows without sighted assistance).
Where's the independence? When posting the article link originally,
I thought it might be valuable to draw a contrast between the
realities of blind access for FOSS vs. Mac OS X. The Mac OS X
integrated, single-bellybutton, turnkey approach (without
significant additional costs e.g. expensive screen readers on
Windows or expensive hardware synthesizers on Linux) seems to be
quickly proving itself more practical, broad-accessbility and
independence-promoting vs. the current FOSS state-of-affairs with
scattered, often badly-documented resources maintained with varying
degrees of frequency/efficiency or the high cost of access on
Windows. I'm not suggesting that everybody should use a Mac...but I
am suggesting that folks developing for the other platforms (as
well as educators and legislators) would do well to take a closer
look at what Apple has done. Reasonable cost and independence-for-
the-average-user should be the central themes of any arguments
promoting the Mac as a platform for use by the blind (and arguments
for improving the state-of-affairs on the other popular computing
platforms).
This article on 'Open Source for the Visually Impaired' originally
posted in 2000 - makes some relevant arguments:
http://linux.omnipotent.net/article.php?article_id=10059
There seems to be nothing at the link for the "Ocularis" Linux
distribution mentioned in the above article.
http://ocularis.sourceforge.net/
Joe
On Mar 20, 2006, at 3:09 PM, Cheryl Homiak wrote:
Hmm, interesting. Both linux and Macosx can be installed without
sighted assistance. I'm assuming his issue with linux has to do
with Italian, though I'm not quite sure why that would hinder
whatever braille system he's using from being detected. I even
heard on another list that if a certain file is put together--
don't remember the details--one can also install Windows
independently.
--
Cheryl
"Where your treasure is,
there will your heart be also".
