[SLUG] We can't see how, yet

[john at johnallsopp.co.uk]

Hi

I think last night's meeting really fired all our imaginations. For
those who weren't there, Dave Dartnall-Smith turned up from
<http://www.scarboroughblindsociety.co.uk> along with Roy (who is
partially sighted). He runs an expanding IT service for his users and
knows a great deal about paying £400-£800 for software that provides a
simplified, aural front-end to Windows so people (maybe (maybe not)
older people who have never used a computer before) could send emails,
read utility bills, etc.

He came because he knew nothing about Linux.

We had ideas for him. But not enough. We needed to think about it. The
answers are not obvious. To my knowledge Linux Format's never
mentioned it (so I've written a letter to them). On our (me, Dave,
Steve) degree course we were told that blind people use Lynx
<http://lynx.browser.org/> together with a text to speech software
program to read the web. Among all the software packages Dave
mentioned, he never mentioned that.

Dave's kindly offered to allow us to view the software and hardware he
provides at the Society on, tentatively, Wednesday 19th April at
19:30. I think that's open to all who are interested.

This really gets you thinking, and the point of this email is to work
out a way of capturing all that happens in the next few weeks. Perhaps
we'll end up with an article we could publish (I'd happily take that
on), and a press release for the local paper. At the very least we
should end up with a page on our website. But I'm wondering whether
this is what wikis are for.

Steve, what do you think .. could we/should we (you :-) ) set up a
wiki on the site as a repository for all the things we discover along
the way?

I also gave a rough users' guide to the Gimp, and we met Mike too .. I
think he's already introduced himself.

J