Integrating Speakup/ESpeakup into Debian boot process

[Kerry Hoath]

Ok I've deleted the message I was replying to as there was a lot of text and 
it was Michael's opinion on accessability.
As a lot of it is personal preference and methods of learning; I won't 
comment on any of that.
Here's my 2 cents worth.
Intercept the stream from the x-server? There are too many graphic 
primatives and you'd never get enough about the program to provide 
meaningful output.
You are also relying on programmers to follow the rules and under X the 
rules change without notice as the protocol changes.
If someone writes a bitmap to the screen you won't have any idea what it is 
and no way to track it.

Jaws/Windoweyes have a video intercept to catch things the off-screen model 
does not expose.
Mac does not have an off-screen model and it's a mindfield. NVDA can't see 
certain things as the object model won't expose them in Windows.
Orca suffers from the same limitations although the gnome framework allows a 
lot of stuff to happen that would not happen if the framework did not exist.
Have you seen the x primatives? There's a big difference in complexity 
between speech dispatcher and the communications with an x.org server.

As to backup methods of access, get a second computer, netbook or similar 
and hook it over a null modem serial connection.
If this is not possible install yasr or other software to run when your 
primary access fails.
Under Windows if Jaws crashes we launch nvda, or narrator, we're in the same 
boat.
If voiceover crashes, we kick the mac and get someone sighted to relaunch it 
in system preferences.

Sure it's a pain to have backup options but every system needs them whether 
it is Linux or dos.

If you don't like Debian's release cycles or policies, pick another 
distribution.
There is also the testing branch that may be nicer than unstable, you could 
also pull the packages you want from unstable with version pinning in apt.
the package system is very powerful and debconf is rather nice once you see 
the big picture on how it simplifies system management.
If you don't like it, bypass it, that's your choice.
Ubuntu ships a new release every 6 months, you could go with that.
viubuntu has speech and braille out of the box, try that.
Gentoo has bleeding edge software if you want it try that.
Fedora has accessibility it might be an option.
If none of that is to your liking build orca from source with speakup as a 
backup option if it crashes.

You could also build speakup from gitt into your own kernel; or take one of 
the precompiled kernel images from the debian archive and try that. You can 
allways go back to the old version if it blows up.

We all slugged it out over the years with Linux and things have become far 
easier than in 1993 when all there was was serial consoles and a pile of 
manpages.

sure Linux is not easy to set up for a new user because you can't define 
what every new user needs to know.
Sure there's a pon script, it tells you that in the Debian administrators 
guide.
It tells you that in /usr/share/doc/pppd/Readme.debian.gz
and NO I didn't originally know where to look either but a search on the 
system hit paydirt.

Unix philosophy is lots of little tools and make your own toolbox. I think 
Vinux does a good job of hiding the complexity from users maybe the live-cd 
is worth a try for some people or try grml.

The battle is certainly finding information I agree, and ones experience and 
ability does play a part.
I'm lucky, I have been using Linux since March 1993, so 16 years now.
when I started I knew nothing. Now I know a lot more than I did back then 
but I learn new stuff every day.

Some people cling to a system because they put years of work into it.
I backup config files and see a system as disposable build a new one and put 
back the configs.
Each to their own methods I guess, that's the power of Linux we all get to 
choose.
I'm glad Samuel is doing good work on accessibility that eventually makes it 
into Ubuntu which is the system I run.
I've run Debian, Slackware, Ubuntu, Redhat, sls and a few other 
distributions over the years.
It's all about choice.

Regards, Kerry.