[laptop-accessibility] A possible solution?

Sun Sep 30 18:07:14 EDT 2007

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Hi Peter and all.

I like your ideas, and I think it makes sense to avoid reinventing the wheel
wherever possible.  I just hope that we don't have to resort to providing
alternative hardware for screen reader users.  I am a big believer in making
the experience for blind and disabled users as equivalent as possible to
that of sighted users; and that includes the cost.

So, it looks like the following questions will need to be addressed before a
proposal can be made:

1. How many developers?

2. What is the estimated project length in man-hours?

3. Hourly rate?

4. Who will the developers be, or at the very least, how will they be found?

5. What are the specific goals and benchmarks of the project?

6. who will oversee the work of the developers?

7. Who will write the grant proposal?

I'm sure that this list is very incomplete, so any additions anyone might
have would be appreciated.

The only question I feel qualified to answer is number 7.  Since I brought
it up, I am willing to take on this responsibility.  Of course, I would
certainly not mind someone stepping up to help out with this.

Anyone else want to take a shot at answering one or more of the above
questions?

Thanks.

Aaron

- --
Skype: cannona
MSN/Windows Messenger: cannona at hotmail.com (don't send email to the hotmail
address.)
- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Korn" <Peter.Korn at Sun.COM>
To: <jg at laptop.org>; "Discussion of accessibility on the OLPC"
<accessibility at lists.laptop.org>; "Willie Walker" <William.Walker at Sun.COM>
Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2007 3:38 PM
Subject: Re: [laptop-accessibility] A possible solution?

> Hi Aaron, Jim,
>
> Aaron - seeking grant funding to advance XO accessibility would be
> cool.  A bunch of us have been looking at the XO architecture -
> including Willie Walker, lead of the GNOME screen reader Orca (cc-ed on
> this e-mail).
>
> The current thinking is that the best way to bring a screen reader to XO
> is by providing the things that Orca needs to run.  As we already are
> using GTK+ for the basic interface, and Orca does an excellent job of
> making GTK+ based apps on the GNOME desktop accessible, the general
> understanding we have is that we need to find an IPC mechanism for the
> accessibility information that can fit comfortable on the XO.  Right now
> on the GNOME desktop we use CORBA for our IPC mechanism (not tiny) and
> Bonobo for activation (also not tiny).  Our plan is to remove the Bonobo
> dependency, hopefully in the GNOME 2.22 timeframe.  At that point, we
> may come to the determination that we can either squeeze what we need of
> CORBA into the XO (perhaps only for those users that need the screen
> reader and for whom we might a system with a tad more RAM/flash), or we
> might go down the path of re-implementing our IPC mechanism on top of
> something else (with DBUS being the main candidate).
>
> Therefore, if you are going to go down the grant route, I think it might
> make sense to focus the grant on the IPC mechanism rather than on
> writing another screen reader.  Another reason for that is we have other
> GNOME AT applications that would also be nice to have on the XO.  It
> would be nice to re-use those just as we would re-use Orca.  If we solve
> the accessibility IPC issue for XO, we wind up with multiple ATs we can
> use.  Whereas, if we write a new screen reader, we only have a screen
> reader (and we loose the benefit of all of that great Orca work, and the
> ongoing advances we are getting from Orca, and all of the custom scripts
> that make the blind user experience great in Orca like the Pidgin script
> for a great blind interface to IM).
>
>
> Regards,
>
>
> Peter Korn
> Accessibility Architect,
> Sun Microsystems, Inc.
>
>> Don't take the lack of activity from OLPC's end as lack of interest...
>> About all we've had time to do is raise the topic of speech synthesis
>> technology for many languages when talking to people with such
>> technology.
>>
>> It's just it is *hard* to bring a laptop to production....
>>
>> A concrete proposal with legwork done of what to do, how, and by whom
>> would be very interesting...
>>                               - Jim
>>
>>
>> On Sun, 2007-09-30 at 10:19 -0500, Aaron Cannon wrote:
>>
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>>>
>>> Hi all.
>>>
>>> I am a bit concerned by the seeming lack of progress being made in
>>> regards
>>> to getting a working screen reader for the XO.  Please don't get me
>>> wrong.
>>> I realize that there are a thousand and one projects that also need to
>>> get
>>> done, and that the stalling of this project is simply because folks are
>>> too
>>> busy.  That is why I believe that an alternative approach might be in
>>> order.
>>>
>>> There may be several reasons why this is infeasible, and I would
>>> appreciate
>>> hearing people's thoughts.
>>>
>>> I would like us to seek a grant for the purpose of hiring a developer or
>>> three to work on the coding of a screen reader, and possibly a
>>> magnification
>>> program.  I believe that by doing so, we could get this project off the
>>> ground a lot faster.  Also, we just might end up with a better product
>>> over
>>> all; not because people who aren't getting paid do shoddier work (I
>>> certainly don't believe that), but because it might cause this project
>>> to
>>> get a little more attention than it otherwise might.
>>>
>>> Of course, the persons hired would have to be vetted by the OLPC group,
>>> and
>>> they would have no greater status than any other contributor.  They
>>> would
>>> simply be getting paid to work on particular things.
>>>
>>> Any thoughts?
>>> Aaron
>>>
>>>
>>> - --
>>> Skype: cannona
>>> MSN/Windows Messenger: cannona at hotmail.com (don't send email to the
>>> hotmail
>>> address.)
>>>
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>
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