SpeechSynthesisProposal

[Henrik Nilsen Omma]

Jason Grieves wrote:
> What are the chances of making this accessible to low vision and 
> mobility impaired users?
By 'this' I presume you mean the installer?

I want to try to identify very clearly what components and features we 
are actually talking about here so we can set realistic priorities. We 
should separate out issues relating to d-i (which will mainly be used 
for Live-CD boot and server install in the future) and UbuntuExpress. I 
will start a page at UbuntuExpress/GnomeUserInterface/Accessibility 
where we can list the key requirements for that.

Also, we are generally power users, and so installation is an important 
issue, because we install a new system every 6 months or even twice a 
day for testing purposes. However, the future of Ubuntu may well be on 
pre-installed systems, in which case the daily-use tools are more 
important to a much larger group. If we can make these tools better, 
they have a greater chance of being installed by default.

Speech and magnification are again completely different technical 
issues. They are combined in tools like Gnopernicus because they are 
often used by the same group. If we want to focus on better 
magnification, then I think we should write up a separate plan for that. 
(I believe Daniel has already started working on building gnome-mag with 
XDamage, yay!)

> 1) low vision.  [snip]  Shortcut keys?
Hm, it didn't occur to me that that keyboard shortcuts were as important 
to low-vision users, but that makes sense.
> 2) Mobility Access.  If everything is keyboard accessible I think that 
> will help a lot.  Obviously the current install is, but chances of 
> implementing something else?
So I think we should focus on Ubuntu Express since it's now being 
actively developed. I'll start a page now. Please add to it (and help 
keep it clear), and then we should track the development carefully. When 
will the first testable versions be out, anyone?

- Henrik