[laptop-accessibility] Thinking outside the box

[Lesley]

Hi.  I'm part if the AT users group over at www.olpcnews.com

I'm really excited to be part of this.  Right now, I have an XO that has been loaned to me and I've had the chance to use it with kids with developmental disabilities.  I appreciate the ruggedness -- already my loaner xo has been through a lot that a regular laptop couldn't take. 

I have a post about it at http://abledandlimping.blogspot.com/2008/01/olpc-g1-b1-g1-someday-s1b-one-laptop.html

I'm really inspired by the xo design and how flexible it is.  I would like to see a task  force working on AT -- there are some many different users with so many different needs. Needs of a totally blind user are radically different from needs of a legally blind user.  But I think that the flexibility of the XO can accomodate so much that it woud be a shame to not jump on it.  

The needs of children with disabilities in the developing world are definitely within the scope of olpc's mission, I think.  

As for me, I'm going to try to work on access -- switches,intellikeys, AAC keys etc.  There is a user at www.olpcnews.com working on Braille machine input and output. I'd love to  figure out how to get on to some sort of systematic AT  program..