[KLUG Members] Voice software for visually impaired - question

[Dirk Bartley]

On Mon, 2003-01-06 at 00:06, Dennis wrote:
> One of my cousins has extremely limited vision. She is 14 and is
> completely unable to read text on a monitor. Regardless how large the
> text is made she still cannot read it. She has access to some kind of
> voice software at school but she and her dad did not recall the name of
> the software when I was talking to them today. From what I understand,
> this software will "read" the screen for her and give audio feedback in
> response to key presses and menu selections. I can only assume from what
> little I have learned that it is running on a Microsoft operating
> system. They say the software is very expensive and the school does not
> have a license for her to use it at home.
> 
> We are going to build up a computer for her and my first choice for an
> operating system would be linux. But depending on software and
> availability we will run whatever operating system is necessary.
> Unfortunately cost is a factor that we must keep in mind. So if at all
> possible I would like to get something open source and try to minimize
> the cost.
> 
> I have been doing a little googling for "voice software" and "visually
> impaired". There is way more information than I can absorb quickly. Can
> anyone point me down a more direct route? Does anyone have any
> recommendations for software to aid the visually impaired?
> 
> Open source and linux compatible is preferred but we will go with what
> is most workable and cost effective.
> 
> If this is off topic please reply to mailto:dennis1111@attbi.com off
> list.
> 
> Thank you,
> -- 
> Dennis

Dennis

You may choose to use the same software that Rick Hayner used when he
did a presentation for us.  Rick is blind.  It was the first KLUG
presentation I attended.  By the time Rick was done with his
presentation, I decided that there was no task I could not accomplish
with Linux.  I saw that he could do more than I could imagine a blind
person being able to do on a computer.  If he could use a computer
running linux, I could get PPP working.

Searching our archives (blind hayner emacs) I am reminded that Rick used
emacspeak.

http://www.kalamazoolinux.org/mailarchive/9910/msg00397.html

Searching google for emacspeak I found 

http://www.cs.cornell.edu/Info/People/raman/emacspeak/emacspeak.html

I was truly inspired that day.  I hope this helps.  I'm not sure if Rick
is still a member of this list or not, he may be able to be of some help
here if he is.  He is a Slackware user and advocate because the
installer was configurable for installation from a serial port for use
with a terminal.

Dirk