[Hudlug] linux accessability

[Ben Fowler]

> If someone can possibly take me through Gnopernicus at some point with its
> keystrokes, I may be able to give some input on accessability ...

Do you mean as an exercise in studying this program, or as a step along
the way ("hand-holding") to exploiting it? I hope the latter.

> ... to implement any suggestions I might make to improve accessability
> of applications.

I think that this raises a number of questions. People who maintain
applications such as Gnopernicus usually have knowlege, expertise and
talent in abundance, but are short of time. The most effective way to
accelerate and improve an open source application is to do some
work on it, if this is impractical then showing willing goes a long
way. Otherwise, suggestions from outsiders unless extrordinarily
meritorious tend to get given low priority.

It is perhaps more important to look for non-coding ways of helping
the project.

The Gnopernicus site gives no clues in these regards!

> ... with someone which has no Visual Impairment taking me through an
> application, I may be able to suggest how controls could be made to work.

You are one step ahead of me. If I were reviewing an Assitive Technology
with a view to improving it, I would wish to consider how it would be
useful to someone who is partially sighted, and separately to someone
who was totally blind. I would guess that the 'totally blind' case would
be much harder.

What you wrote back then wasn't quite my idea. I would like to ask
you, Michael,
what are the things
that you would like to do with Ubuntu that either you currently can't, or
that are overly cumbersome? Between the group, we could fix those up. This
is a vital part of Hudlug's normal activity, and benefit to the Gnopernicus
project, though I hope that it is welcome would be a side-effect.

Do you agree? Maybe I am unable to to see (or at least describe) things
from your point of view, or from where you stand.

> For example if someone loaded Gnucash and I was on a screen for creating an
> account, someone could take me through the various fields and maybe it could
> be suggested that if you tab through the fields the fields could be made to
> speak.

O.K. You have mentioned GNUcash at least twice. Is this an important activity
for you? I would at once suggest that there is a privacy and perhaps a security
issue here. Lets try to be forward looking:

* Do you think that GNUcash is sufficiently usable in its own right, that with
a frosting of Assitive Technology you could complete your monthly accounting
chores?

* Do you know either where are the stumbling blocks, the squeaky
wheels in GNUcash
that are holding you back and need to be by-passed and oiled respectively?

* Do you look at GNUcash and become aware of functionality that is
denied to you?

If you can list those (lack of) features, we can break them down and see how
Assitive Technology most likely in form of Gnopernicus can be applied.

Baum Engineering has qualified Ubuntu 5.10 as working with their Gnopernicus.
It follows that you should try to use this version and none other.

> The advantage I bring, once I have a Sighted person with me to describe
> the application is that because I am not working at the moment I have
> plenty of time on my hands to do something like this.

That is a bit pessimistic. Let us try to get the technology working for
you and you can get a good job somewhere.

> I just gave Gnucash as an example as it seems an alternative to
> Windows Microsoft Money, Quicken or Money Talks which is a talking program
> which has been designed for Blind people to keep accounts which is self
> voicing although I myself haven't got it to work and am not sure if it only
> supports US currency as it was written by American Printing house for the
> Blind or something like that.

I was under the impression that GNUcash was a bit of a handful for a sighted
person. Are you asserting that the standard Small Office/Home accounts
package for the visually handicapped is not (quite fully) suitable for use
in the U.K.? If so, then there must be others in your situation.

I have Gnome 2.10 (could update to 2.12 if needed), on Gentoo.

Have you seen http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/opinions/6127/1/
which enumerates minor annoyances of using a computer when handicapped,
including: crashes, losing work, re-installing ...

We should be able to do better

Ben