open source accessibility opinion enquirey

[Ann Parsons]

Morning, Joanna, 

I am not a techie, I am a mere user of the software, I till attempt to
answer your question as best I can.

>>>>> "Joanna" == Foster,Joanna  <JFoster at lambeth.gov.uk> writes:

    Joanna> London Borough of Lambeth: our disclaimer is at the end of
    Joanna> this e-mail.
    Joanna> ***********************************************************************************

    Joanna> Dear All

    Joanna> I'm working on a local community project in conjunction
    Joanna> with a specialist IT and Internet training charity U CAN
    Joanna> DO I.T, who provide low cost training to individuals with
    Joanna> visual impairments, hard of hearing or who are physically
    Joanna> disabled. Our role here at REALISE I.T is to provide
    Joanna> refurbished PC's free of charge to these individuals
    Joanna> within our project area (four London borough's)

    Joanna> U CAN DO I.T trainers currently work with JAWS; Hal;
    Joanna> Windows Eyes and Super Nova. I'm investigating Open Source
    Joanna> software as an alternative to Microsoft to lower the
    Joanna> software costs to these individuals. As far as I know the
    Joanna> above software is not compatible with Linux.

    Joanna> I was hoping that someone might be able to give me their
    Joanna> opinions of open source alternatives - preferably
    Joanna> compatible with Linux?  What is out there and how do you
    Joanna> rate it?

    Joanna> It would be really helpful to get any advice. I look
    Joanna> forward to hearing all your opinions shortly
 
    Joanna> Kind regards

    Joanna> Jo Foster


If you are assisting consumers to access computers for the purpose of
improving the quality of their lives as opposed to helping them to
gain skills for employment, then Linux is definitely the route to go. 

No, the screen readers you cite above do not work with Linux because
Windows is a different operating system from Linux.  

If you want basic word processing, ability to surf the Net, ability to
listen to streaming radio and to play MP3's and OGG files, ability to
expand to include sophisticated publishing and so on, ability to play
games, then Linux is for you. 

My advice would be to set up computers and equip them all equally with
the same distribution of Linux, the same periferals, the same sounds
cards, and to load them up with Speakup.  Speakup is a screen reader
for Linux, and in its latest edition, it offers cursoring ability for
editing and much, much more.  Speakup is free, both in the sense of
free beer and free license.  So are the distributions of Linux.  If
you have the right hardware, you can equip a computer with access
software quite cheaply.

Now, understand, this is *not* a GUI interface.  Gnome and Sun systems
have been promising access to X-Windows for years.  There is stuff in
Beta, but it is not ready for prime-time yet.  

HTH,
Ann P.

-- 
			Ann K. Parsons  
email:  akp at eznet.net 			
WEB SITE:  http://home.eznet.net/~akp
"All that is gold does not glitter.  
Not all those who wander are lost."  JRRT