Feisty SpeakUp

[Henrik Nilsen Omma]

Hello,

I'd like to ask for some input on a spec I'm doing for the next version 
of Ubuntu. We currently have speakup in the kernel but it's very far 
from Just Works. See: 
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Accessibility/Specs/FeistySpeakup

I guess I first have to ask what the common use cases are. Is speakup 
largely used by system admins and developers working from the CLI? Is it 
valuable to have a Live CD that boots to the CLI with speakup? We 
currently don't have CLI Live CD AFAIK.
 
The possible areas I could imagine improving usability are:

 * Server edition -- Currently has the speakup module, but not simple 
way to install or run live
 * The debian installer -- currently used on the alternate and server CDs
 * spoken boot -- have all the boot messages read out as you boot
 * Standard CLI, simple launch -- For those who prefer gnome it may be 
difficult to recover when X fails. It should be trivial to launch 
speakup in such cases: 'start-speakup'. An introduction with basic 
operating instructions should be read out.
 * anything else?


Another point I want to emphasise is that if we do this it would be in 
the main Ubuntu distribution, not a special derivative. It is not just 
intended for advanced computer users, but beginners as well. The 
features should then also get picked up by Kubuntu, Edubuntu, Mephis, etc.


Henrik