Question from a new member

[Henrik]

Christian wrote:
> Hi all,
> I have just joined this list and very interested in Ubuntu.
> >From what I understand, BRLTTY is included on the installation CD. Is it possible to boot BRLTTY at th beginning of the installation? Or is the only way for me to get it installed ask a sighted friend or wait for the Live CD to become ready?
> Many thanks,
> Christian
>
>   
Hi Christian,

Welcome :) 

Brltty is not active during the normal install process and I really 
don't know how well it would work with the debian installer. Our primary 
focus for providing accessibility is through the Live CD you mentioned, 
which will also become the main install CD for most people and the one 
that gets mass produced.

The beta release of dapper is scheduled for tomorrow and should have 
access features enabled by default (in theory). If you have a chance to 
download and test that would be great. None of us in the devel team have 
a braille device so we would appreciate help with testing (though I 
really have now idea to what extent it will work). When you boot the 
live CD there is a main menu and a few options that can be accessed with 
the function keys. F5 brings up the accessibility options.


Known limitations:

1. There is no audible feedback when the live CD boot menu appears, 
though you may be able to hear the CD drive slow down. The menu then 
stays up for 30 seconds, after which it boots automatically in standard 
mode. Pressing any key halts the count-down.

2. Pressing F5 and navigating the resulting menu provides no audible or 
braille feedback.

3. We wanted to activate the menu choice with a single keystroke, but at 
the moment you have to use the arrow keys to select the correct option. 
To activate the screen reader you have to press the down arrow 3 times, 
then Enter to activate and Enter to boot. I _think_ that option should 
also activate the braille device (but I'm not sure).

4. On the flight 6 release the right options were not always activated 
on boot. Bugs were filed but I don't know how how many of these have 
been fixed if any :-/


An alternative option would be to boot the CD normally and then exit 
gnome and see if braille works on the live CD console. Of course the 
espresso installer doesn't have a command prompt interface ATM, so that 
doesn't take you very far but you might be able to poke around the file 
system.

- Henrik