Talking bios

[Janina Sajka]

Part of the problem in asking for sighted assistance with this kind of
stuff is that you become emeshed with your assistant's level of
competence in such matters. Generally, this means that you are severly
dumbed down, and can barely get anything accomplished. In my experience,
at least, the person helping is usually overwhelmed and can barely even
notice what needs to be seen on screen without careful coaching or even
gentle ego coddling.

I could go on, but that would just be self-serving.

Point is that we're not asking for anything new. We're asking for
something that most of us don't have experience with, though, because it
was common in an era before, and with higher end computers, than most of
us have had access to. I do think recognizing that access through
connected terminal devices is as old as computing helps our advocacy by
pointing out that what we need is as old as the hills. I think it serves
to make people more comfortable that they can deliver for us because
they're not necessarily inventing something new.



Alex Snow writes:
> From: Alex Snow <alex_snow at gmx.net>
> 
> I don't give a damn if I have to connect a braille 'n squeak or any 
> other device to my box as long as it makes the bios accessible. I hate 
> getting sited help with this kind of stuff.
> On Wed, Dec 24, 2003 at 
> 04:55:49AM -0500, Jacob Schmude wrote:
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> > Hash: SHA1
> > 
> > Hi
> > Well, strikes me that if you own any kind of terminal capable of communicating at 9600 baud you could take advantage of this sort of access. This includes 
> > second computers, laptops, other notetakers, and whatever else you may have. Perhaps it won't benefit everybody, but IMHO, a little access sure as hell beats 
> > the access we have now., and I'd say access such as this, if it ever was implemented on a PC bios, would be a damn good start to something long overdue.
> > 
> > On Tue, 23 Dec 2003 21:39:56 -0500, Allan Shaw wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > >... but that's not what you indicated.  You indicated that you feel that by 
> > >connecting a Braille"n Speak to your system which allows you to access the 
> > >bios makes that bios perfectly accessible.  that's only one option, what if 
> > >you don't happen to own a braille'n speak?
> > 
> > 
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> > Version: PGP SDK 3.0
> > 
> > iQA/AwUBP+lipZXfgIVMPEIbEQJlcwCfT81FryU8tlEG93Xjt3lc4y1reLsAnifH
> > gGrQe1kg5RSHqJGzOdR2ZWKF
> > =lvQC
> > -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 
> -- 
> Always borrow money from a pessimist; he doesn't expect to be paid
> back.
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

-- 
	
Janina Sajka
Email: janina at rednote.net		
Phone: (202) 408-8175

Director, Technology Research and Development
American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)
http://www.afb.org

Chair, Accessibility Work Group
Free Standards Group
http://accessibility.freestandards.org