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

[Wayan Vota | OLPC News]

I would suggest that the OLPC News Forum Assistive Technology Group 
would love to lead this.  They can be found at: 
http://olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?board=66.0

I know I'd love to post about either the need or the results of activity 
around this on OLPC News.

Wayan


Edward Cherlin wrote:
> 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
> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> OLPC-SF mailing list
>> OLPC-SF at lists.laptop.org
>> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-sf
>>
> 
> 
> 

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Wayan Vota
Publisher
OLPC News
http://www.olpcnews.com

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