heretical thoughts was Re: Speakup dropped from Ubuntu

[Gene Collins]

>I'm not qualified to comment on the technical merits of a kernel vs. a 
>user-space solution, but I know that from a maintenance point of view we 
>would prefer it.
>
Well, you haven't told us how Speakup adds to your mainttenance
problems.  I mean  the only thing extra you are doing is running a
checkout script, in order to patch speakup into the kernel.  After that,
you are just doing a make oldconfig with the .config file from your most
recent kernel.  What you have to understand about accessibility is that
it often requires a set of tools to do a job, not necessarily just one.

The problem with having only software synthesis on the system is that
when there is a problem, the software synthesis is often the first
thing to stop functioning.  It's like having the monitor become suddenly
unavailable for a sighted person, just when they need it the most.  If
we gave sighted folks a video driver which was the first thing to stop
functioning when the system had a problem, you'd hear howls of outrage. 
But when blind folks ask for a solution like speakup and a hardware
synthesizer which will function even during a kernel panic sometimes,
sighted folks seem to have real trouble understanding the need for
reliable access.

I don't recall seeing any requests here from Ubuntu folks for help with
maintenance issues for Speakup.  It appears to me that what we have here
is a group of sighted folks who don't use the technology making
decissions about what blind folks need or don't need, want or don't
want.  In my view, that's inappropriate.

If Speakup is dropped from Ubuntu, then I may just have to go back to
using Debian.  I can deal with the lack of a gui interface, because most
things I need to do, I can do from a text console.  I can't deal with a
gui only interface which only has parts of itself accessible, and that
sometimes at the whim of a developer.  No, you can't get in to my tool
box and try to tell me I don't need the 1 quarter inch socket set.  When
it's necessary, it's necessary.

I make my living as a computer consultant.  It will be to bad if I'm
forced to recomend that folks stay clear of Ubuntu because of it's lack
of support for text console accessibility, but if that's the choice I'm
force to, then that's what I'll do.  I hope the folks managing Ubuntu
will reconsider their decission, but if not, all I can do is steer clear
of distros that insist on causing me grieff.

Gene Collins