On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 03:18:38PM -0200, Maur??cio CA wrote: > I also have an old plan of teaching professional computer > programming for blind people, since I watched a movie named > Sneakers, where a blind guy named Whistler uses a computer through > something that looks like some kind of braille terminal.
I have a friend Philip who is blind and a professional programmer. He writes audio arcade games, you can try the demo (2 levels) of his game q9 if you're interested: http://blastbay.com/q9.php It runs on windows or in wine, I doubt whether it will work on plan 9 unless wine can run in plan 9's Linux emulation (of which I know nothing). He might be interested to talk to you about your idea to teach computer programming to blind people. I can set up a meeting online or ask him about it if you like. I had an idea for a different of input device for blind people, for gui / graphical displays, which would be something like a braille terminal but with bitmap graphics and acting like a touchscreen. It could give audio feedback about what you are touching - it could for example read text aloud when you touch it, and play quiet sounds or musical harmonies corresponding to different colours and items as you touch them. The audio feedback part could be achieved with a normal mouse or graphics tablet / touchpad for demonstration purposes. I think this could make it possible for blind people to play classic arcade games (slightly modified) such as Kings Quest, not to mention do other useful things with unmodified or minimally modified graphical computer programs, websites, maps, etc. Sam
