[laptop-accessibility] [OLPC-SF] Notes from Saturday's meeting (Sameer Verma) - XO for visually impaired

[Edward Cherlin]

On Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 7:57 AM, Greg Smith <gregsmitholpc at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Sameer et al,
>
> I want to clarify a little on item #6 below.
>
> I wasn't suggesting Braille specifically. All I know is that there is a
> school in Addis Ababa with 20 - 30 visually impaired kids who have XOs.
> They asked if we have any software which would be useful for them.
>
> It could be anything (text to speech, braille, something else). I got
> several responses on the accessibility list for ideas.
>
> Unfortunately, I can't be the lead person coordinating this. I can make
> an occasional suggestion and help get you in touch with the school in
> Ethiopia if/when you have some software available.

I can't be the lead either, but I can assist with software design,
including language support in TTS, and Amharic Braille encoding. There
are fairly expensive Braille input and output peripherals available.

> If people are interested in working on this, my suggested steps are:
> 1 - Pick a person or two to coordinate the effort.
> 2 - Build a small group and identify skills (e.g. developers, testers,
> project managers, all around workers, etc)
> 3 - Start looking for target software to include or adapt and write new
> SW as needed.
> 4 - Test the software and show it works.
> 5 - Contact the school in Ethiopia and see if they are interested.
>
> Related threads include this on the accessibility list:
> http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/accessibility/2008-October/000198.html
>
> Maybe this one on Speech to text:
> http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/devel/2008-September/019136.html
>
> The first note here on community news about a group The Netherlands
> which may have experience with relevant software:
> http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/community-news/2008-October/000152.html
>
> Sorry to pass the buck. I'm not as free to work on whatever I please as
> I used to be. This project could create a very rewarding relationship
> between kids and developers, so the potential pay off is big. The only
> down side is that it will take a lot of hard work.
>
> I suggest that we do not contact the school at all until we have a very
> solid grip on what might be possible.
>
> Thanks for your interest and let me know how it goes.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Greg S

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