[Hudlug] Re: Gnopernicus, Gnome and Ubuntu

[Ben Fowler]

On 2/27/06, MICHAEL WEAVER <michaelweaver1 at btinternet.com> wrote:
> [ snip ]
> I probably wasn't just thinking about accessability for Gnucash, I would not
> rule out any alternatives as regards keeping financial records, with me not
> using Linux with speech at the moment apart from Oralux which is quite
> limited because it is a live CD based on Gnoppics and uses mostly Emacs
> which is verry difficult for a Linux newby even for someone used to shortcut
> keys, I am not likely to know lots of applications that are available in
> Linux whether they are usable by the Blind or not.

I want to try keep focus (preferably on one area!); but I am not wishing
to decide that focus - quite possibly I would make a mess of doing that.
In concrete terms, I would like you, Michael, to consider which areas
of computer use present you with actual difficulties, which are most
amenable to improvement, and which you would like (enjoy) working on. If
you juggle these factors, can you come up with a list of priorities which
means something to you, and the rest of us can take these 'from the
top'.

1. Oralux seems to have a lot of potential, if that is in the running
I would be tempted to stick with it.

2. As a sighted person, I rate Knoppix and Gnoppix very highly indeed.
Do you not?

3. Emacs is a good choice, but it very definitely does not suit everyone.
Do you know why the emacspeak folk chose to start from emacs? What
would following in their footsteps mean to you?

4. Does working from a live CD present especial difficulties? Or is it
simply inconvenient? As a sighted person, I would find it a little
inconvenient, but that means nothing when it does the job such as
fixing up a partition table, a file system or shared libraries for
me, and is a very big benefit when working on someone else's  machine.
Does the fact that it is far harder to mess things up beyond an easy
fix not count for anything? I'm guessing that many activities of
daily living are inconvenient when blind, does using a live CD really
rate against that backgound.

5. I don't think that it is fair to characterise emacs as tough for
newbies. In fact, learning it as a newby even as your first text
editor makes a lot of sense - it is simply the best text editor there
is - and you are guaranteed a continuing dividend from the initial
investment of time and brainpower.

6. I am hoping that you will make contact with other visually
handicapped users of linux, and perhaps be prepared to make use
of their achievements.

Ben