draft for Friends of GNOME campaign

[Robert Cole]

Hello, Michael, all.

As concerning this topic, it was suggested to me on the 
gnome-accessibility mailing list that a Testimonials page would be 
beneficial in allowing users to share their stories about how assistive 
technologies such as Orca as well as other applications have improved 
their lives and have made them more productive in a Linux environment as 
a way to promote open source technologies and free desktops.

I have begun to develop a testimonials page [1], and I would also like 
to request the aid of other users in providing (freely) their 
experiences with these technologies.

I want to add that I am not a paid professional of any sort. I am simply 
a visually impaired user who wants to see accessibility-related 
technologies flourish in an open source environment. I was a Windows 
user until 2007 when I completely switched to Linux. I could not afford 
the prices of commercially available assistive technologies, nor could I 
afford to pay for upgrades for these technologies. I was running an 
updated Windows system with old and outdated assistive technology 
software, which made things difficult. I, to this day, still am having 
difficulty with finding work due to my visual disability, but I use my 
computer system to learn new skills and to keep myself informed (as I am 
a Computer Information Systems student, due to graduate after this 
semester). I can honestly say that I would have not been able to come 
this far if not for open source technologies. Though I am sure that 
someone could probably do a much better job on the page listed in the 
footnote of this message, this is (as best as I am able to do it) my 
small contribution to the big picture.

If anyone has a brief story or testimonial which you would like added to 
the page, please feel free to write to me off-list (or on-list if it is 
alright to do so). It was suggested that users provide a picture of 
themselves along with their testimonials, but this is not absolutely 
mandatory.

Orca and screen magnification are absolutely vital to me as a blind 
user. Without these technologies available, I would be at a tremendous 
loss, and I definitely would not be able to pursue a career in the field 
which I love so much--computer science/IT.

Thanks for any input, and thanks for posting this here, Michael.

[1] Accessibility Testimonials: 
http://live.gnome.org/Accessibility/Testimonials

On 12/07/2011 04:13 PM, Michael Hall wrote:
> Forwarding this on to the Ubuntu accessibility team, and they might have
> some good real-life stories to share as well.
>
> Michael Hall
> mhall119 at ubuntu.com
>
>
> On 12/06/2011 12:50 PM, Stormy Peters wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 12:22 PM, Dave Neary<dneary at gnome.org
>> <mailto:dneary at gnome.org>>  wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>      Do we have some examples of GNOME users whose lives were made
>>      measurably better because of the a11y work we've done? Show-cases
>>      work wonders.
>>
>>
>> I agree with Dave that a quote or a case study would make it more real.
>> People are much more willing to donate to save a particular kid ("Joey")
>> who is sick than they are to donate to an organization that helps
>> vaccinate 1000s of kids.
>>
>> Also, I think we should end with a call to action. What do we want them
>> to do? ex: "Donate $25 now and help us reach another person."
>>
>> Stormy
>>
>>