[Hudlug] Work and Optimists amongst us! (was Re: Gnopernicus, ...)

[Ben Fowler]

On 2/27/06, MICHAEL WEAVER <michaelweaver1 at btinternet.com> wrote:
> [ snip ]
> I wasn't being pessimistic as regards work, ...

O.K. I do however, mean to imply that if you want to take your place
in the world of work, you can count on HUDLug to continue to help
you with basic training and long term support for linux and related
applications.

> ... I am supposed to be doing some
> voluntary work when the hospital gets back to me ...

Do you happen to know what skills the hospital are looking for?

> ... and if we are talking about
> time, the fact I am not working at the moment does have its advantage as
> regards putting effort into making more applications under Linux and a wider
> range of them area wise i.e. accounting, Internet et cetera more accessible
> to the Blind.

I dealt with that earlier, and thinking back to my last point, it is not
really a matter of time or effort, but simply wanting to be part of a
project to improve accessability. I suspect that there is some duplication
of effort, and possibly some wasted effort, so I would like to check
several options before selecting which to work on. Most serious work
on accessibility seems to be based on shrink wrapped software and may often
be grant-aided. I think that it is a disappointment that free software,
preferably GPL'd is not the first choice, but that is outside my remit.
SuSE has or had (not sure which) an excellent reputation for support of
people with a visual handicap, under the name blinux

http://www.leb.net/blinux/blinux-faq.html
7.1 Q: Why not bug Linux distributors (like Red Hat, SuSE...) to
create a Linux distro with blind support?

A: Regarding SuSE Linux: SuSE Linux distro _has_ blind support. SuSE
is supporting an increasing number of Braille displays. SuSE even
employs Linux developers who are blind to improve usability of their
Linux distribution. ...

7.2 Q: How can I contribute to improve support for the Linux user who is blind?

A: There are several worthwhile access-related projects underway at
present. These include Emacspeak, BrlTTY, Braifo, Gnome Speech,
UltraSonix and an assortment of screen readers. If you aren't involved
in any of these projects directly and would like to assist in making
Linux and free/open-source software in general more accessible, then I
would suggest trying any of the following:

    1. If you have had some programming experience, and you would like
to contribute to one of these projects, contact the author to find out
whether you could make a contribution. Alternatively, if there is a
need which you think is unlikely to be met by any of the existing
projects, start one of your own.

    2. If, like me, you do not have a background in software
development, then you can still contribute in a variety of ways:
testing and bug reporting, writing documentation and tutorials, or
providing feedback and design ideas to the active developers.

    3. The open-source community is already engaged in a number of
development efforts which are of relevance to the future of user
interfaces, web access, etc., on Linux and other free operating
systems. These include desktop environments and web browsers. Why not
contribute to one or more of these projects, become part of the
development process, or raise awareness of different user interface
scenario in appropriate fora with the designers of these packages? T.
V. Raman's presentation at the Bazaar open-source conference, which is
available online at http://emacspeak.sourceforge.net/ is a case in
point.

    4. If you know any individual or organisation that might be
interested in contributing existing software, in the form of source
code, or development effort, in an area that would be relevant to
access concerns (E.G. speech synthesis software, OCR software, braille
translation software, etc.), then you could, if appropriate, make the
suggestion. These days, free software/open-source projects are
starting to appear which are based on software contributed by an
organisation seeking to take advantage of this mode of development,
whether by offering support services, using the software as an adjunct
to related products or consultancy activities, providing drivers for
their proprietary hardware, etc.

    5. If you decide to start a software project or wish to raise
access concerns, there is a variety of online fora available:
http://lwn.net/ http://freshmeat.net/ http://slashdot.org/ to name
some of the better known options.


Ben