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How Proprietary JAWS Bites the Blind
,----[ Quote ]
| And the reason it can, of course, is because
| it is proprietary software, which means that
| nobody can route around the problem.
|
| This episode shows once again why it is
| vital for such software to be open source so
| that there is no gatekeeper, and so that the
| community's needs come first, not the desire
| of a company to make as much money as
| possible regardless of the plight of the
| people it affects.
`----
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/10/how-proprietary-jaws-bites-blind.html
Recent:
In Over My Head: Blinux
,----[ Quote ]
| Those who are completely blind have long had better resources, taking
| advantage of the superiority of Linux on the commandline.
`----
http://jehurst.wordpress.com/2009/01/15/in-over-my-head-blinux/
Vibuntu 1.0
,----[ Quote ]
| I am happy to announce the release of Vibuntu 1.0 (aka Vinux) a remaster of
| the Intrepid Ibex live CD customised to the needs of blind and partially
| sighted users! It is designed to boot from a live cd or USB memory stick, log
| you in automatically and then start up the Orca screen-reader. Full-screen
| magnification can then be activated with a simple keystroke.
`----
http://linux.softpedia.com/get/Adaptive-Technologies/Vibuntu-43337.shtml
Lead, kindly light: Debian shows the way
,----[ Quote ]
| White, who is blind, presented a paper on using Linux with speech and Braille
| output interfaces.
|
| A GNU/Linux user since 1998, when he switched over from DOS, White's paper
| provided a comprehensive overview of how much support the blind and
| sight-impaired people are afforded by free software projects.
`----
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/16427/1090/
Related:
Free Operating System For Blind: Adriane Knoppix
,----[ Quote ]
| Klaus and Adriane Knopper are working on an operating system for the
| blind, and as compared to other solutions available, this one is
| absolutely free!
`----
http://www.efytimes.com/efytimes/fullnews.asp?edid=17094
IBM helps blind 'see' web video
,----[ Quote ]
| Technology giant, IBM, is soon to launch a multimedia browser to make
| audio and video content accessible to people with vision impairments.
|
| [...]
|
| The company plans to "open source" its new accessibility software in
| order to make it available to the largest possible number of people.
`----
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6507189.stm
IBM tool 'reads' Web video for blind
,----[ Quote ]
| IBM has made a tool for Web browsers that will help the blind and
| visually impaired access streaming multimedia on the Web.
`----
http://news.com.com/2100-1038_3-6166491.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news
IBM to Help Colleges Make Software More Accessible for Disabled and Aged
,----[ Quote ]
| The students wrote computer code that checks word processing documents
| that adhere to the OpenDocument Format (ODF), to determine whether they
| are accessible. To propagate the technology, the students contributed
| their code to the open source community (sourceforge.org).
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/070323/0230042.html
The Free Standards Group to Standardize New Accessibility Software Interfaces
Donated by IBM
,----[ Quote ]
| The Free Standards Group has said that it will be developing and
| maintaining software interfaces donated by IBM as an open standard,
| available for all to use. The standardized interfaces, IAccessible2,
| make it far easier for application developers to provide accessible
| applications to computer users with disabilities, regardless of their
| OS platform. IAccessible2 will become a crucial part of the FSG
| Accessibility Workgroup and is available immediately.
`----
http://www.linuxelectrons.com/News/Application/The_Free_Standards_Group_to_Standardize_New_Accessibility_Software_Interfaces_Donated_by_IBM
Ground swell in favour of open source
,----[ Quote ]
| Krishnakant Mane, a fellow from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research,
| Mumbai (himself a visually challenged person), spoke on ubuntu and Orca -the
| accessible screen reader that works with Linux.
|
| "There are certainly more to using open source OS (Linux) and screen reader
| besides cost," Mane said.
| "For once, Orca can comfortably read Hindi without support from any other TTS
| (Text-To-Speech) engines, something proprietary screen readers have not
| achieved so far.
|
| It is also possible to invest a fraction of the money paid for licences to
| tweak it and make it work better."
`----
http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Dec122007/cyberspace2007121140739.asp
Student exposes NZ govt Web site shortcomings
,----[ Quote ]
| Bradshaw concentrated on sight disabilities in his project, using a panel of
| testers who are blind, color-blind or have partial sight. He also used a pair
| of open-source automatic testing programs, Validator and OpenWolf. The match
| between the sets of trials was used as a check on the functioning of OpenWolf
| in particular.
`----
http://www.linuxworld.com.au/index.php?id=1779913129&rid=-50
Low cost software for and by visually impaired
,----[ Quote ]
| Chennai (PTI): A city-based visually impaired software professional has come
| out with an 'open source voice-enabled software' based on LINUX system, for
| the benefit of visually handicapped.
`----
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/008200710231725.htm
Device Profile: Levelstar Icon PDA for visually-impaired users
,----[ Quote ]
| Levelstar used embedded Linux to create a PDA (personal digital assistant)
| for visually impaired users. The "Icon" has a custom hardware design with
| built-in 30GB hard drive, WiFi, Bluetooth, and USB, and comes with a full
| complement of "life managing software," much of it written from scratch for
| blind users.
`----
http://linuxdevices.com/articles/AT3329252460.html
Barric: SBC with open-source Linux OS
,----[ Quote ]
| The "Balloon" project is an open source, Xscale based, single
| board embedded computer using an open-source Linux operating
| system and a collection of open source tools to enable
| engineers to develop on the platform.
`----
http://www.embedded-control-europe.com/prodnews?cat=1&pid=214
IBM beats Microsoft over the head with its own code
,----[ Quote ]
| Accessibility technology now headed for open-source applications was derived
| from work done by Microsoft.
`----
http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2007/091007-ibm-accessibility.html?fsrc=rss-linux-applications
Accessibility building momentum
,----[ Quote ]
| Recently, I've seen encouraging signs that the ICDL will be fully
| supportive of people who want to be "computer literate" with free
| software. Wouldn't it be something if that privilege were extended
| to EVERY user, regardless of financial circumstance, language, or
| disability?
`----
http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/93
IBM to Help Colleges Make Software More Accessible for Disabled and Aged
,----[ Quote ]
| The students wrote computer code that checks word processing documents
| that adhere to the OpenDocument Format (ODF), to determine whether they
| are accessible. To propagate the technology, the students contributed
| their code to the open source community (sourceforge.org).
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/070323/0230042.html
Reviewing the "Accessibility of Ecma Office Open XML File Formats"
,----[ Quote ]
| When and how will the accessibility failings cited in the paper be fixed? ...
| For example, the white paper notes that MSOXML fails to support WCAG 1.0
| checkpoints 4.2, 5.2, 9.4, 10.2, 12.1, 12.2, and 12.4. The white paper
| further notes that MSOXML only partially supports checkpoints WCAG 1.0
| checkpoints 6.4, 8.1, 9.1, and 11.1. Some of these are particularly important
| for blind users needing to understand the context of table cells and for good
| Braille and DAISY transcription of tables - issues we found in ODF v1.0 and
| fixed in ODF v1.1. Will these things get fixed in the future? If so, when? By
| whom? With what outside review (if any)? To appear in what update of the
| specification?
`----
http://blogs.sun.com/korn/entry/reviewing_the_a_href_http
Talking with Microsoft's Gray Knowlton about MSOXML accessibility
,----[ Quote ]
| Gray, at the start of your blog comment you say "Iâm not sure that the âwho
| did this?â question matters as much as your post seems to indicate", and you
| spend several paragraphs describing your (non-accessibility) background at
| Microsoft and Adobe.
`----
http://blogs.sun.com/korn/entry/talking_with_microsoft_s_gray
Happy (belated) birthday: GNOME accessibility turns 6 years old
,----[ Quote ]
| Ubuntu version 6.10 is shipping, with Orca available and optionally
| talking at boot up from the LiveCD, and talking and Brailling through
| the install (making this the first evern graphical desktop that you
| can install using Braille, and the second one that you can install
| using speech)
`----
http://blogs.sun.com/korn/entry/happy_%28belated%29_birthday%3A_gnome_accessibility
http://tinyurl.com/yammg9
Firefox: An open source accessibility success story
,----[ Quote ]
| Mozilla and Firefox are gradually becoming a core part of the future
| of web accessibility, where the open source license is a huge
| advantage. The Firefox accessibility effort has now truly achieved
| ignition, not only with base accessibility support in Firefox, but
| also by leading the future of accessibility for dynamic web applications.
`----
http://www-306.ibm.com/able/resources/firefox.html
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