Visualy impaired

[Stoppard]

Hi Chuck and all, thanks for your help (and opinions).

I think part of the problems for me are this heat (in the UK amazingly) and
i am still ajusting to notbeing able to look at a screen.  As Linux commands
are not reader friendly e.g. STTY, when jaws reads it it might as well be
double dutch. As it sounds like sty. Its only if the letters are in capital
that jaws reads it letter by letter.   I have been going back over with the
cursor letter by letter.  Hopefully when my eyes recover a bit again i will
be able to look at my running linux book again although it does not have
information on speakup.

I think the other problem is that every one on this list is either very
clever and, or, has a lot of unix / linux experience or both.

I am sure there is a lot of documentation on linux if you know where to find
it.  Also i have read that Linyx documentation is not always as helpful as
it might be as it describes things in general terms.  Which is not surpising
as it can't cater for all posible distobutions.  Thats not nessasarly my
oppion btw think i read it on a web site about a year or more ago.  Mind you
i was looking at the documentation on installing speakup from the Slackware
8.1 cd yesterday and it kept saying that you needed to refer to other
documentation but did not say what it was or where to find it.

Chuck i have had a look at your link but had trouble accessing the file
menuwhen i was trying to book mark the site  on IE  I will try again latter.
i also tryed linuxdocs.org but page would not load again i will try again
latter.

Chuck, , Interesting points about comercial software.  Although its
interesting for me that the growth in linux is(at least in part)  due to
selling commercial support for linux, even slackware i belive has a book for
sale or advertised on there site and links to other companys who provide
support for the right price.  Of course if you are an expert then you don't
need this, but i don't think becoming one is that easy.

All that said i wish you guys the best of luck with what you are doing, i
really lookforward to screen readers for linux.

I relise that my opinions are probably very unpopular, so i think i will
shut up in a sec.

Hopefully i will keep experimenting with linux/ Unix  in some form in the
future.

Nigel the newbie

----- Original Message -----
From: "Chuck Hallenbeck" <chuckh at sent.com>
To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2003 10:53 PM
Subject: Re: Visualy impaired


> Hi Nigel and all,
>
> I was really surprised by your reporting such difficulty with
> Linux, as was Ann. I am a Slackware user and have found it to be
> easy to install without a monitor, although I cannot say if it is
> easier or harder than the other distros, since it is the only
> distribution I have ever used.
>
> If the problem is unfamiliarity with some of the basic concepts
> and terminology of unix/linux systems, such as the conventions of
> naming files, directories, permissions, and such stuff, maybe a
> unix tutorial will help. Here is a useful one, which perhaps
> Windows with JFW will not screw up too badly for you to use:
>
> http://www.wizvax.net/wizvax/UNIX/index.html
>
> As for who is and who is not blind, or who is and who is not a
> developer, Ann's points were well taken. Most everybody on this
> list is blind, although a few may be passing <smile>. As far as I
> know, all the speakup developers are themselves blind, and many
> of us who are only enthusiastic beta testers of speakup are
> nevertheless developers of other products. Most of us have chosen
> Linux because we are committed to the open source free software
> model, but also because of the incredible amount and quality of
> accessible documentation available right there on the desktop
> that comes with every Linux distribution.
>
> I hope you will give Linux a real try before settling for a
> future limited to Windows, JFW, and the world of commercial
> burdens and restrictions.
>
> Chuck
>
>
> --
> The Moon is Waning Gibbous (88% of Full)
> Get my public key from the website, http://www.mhonline.net/~chuckh
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>