Mythspeech - mythtv for blind/visually impaired

[faginbagin]

On 12/22/2012 05:39 PM, Peter Vágner wrote:
> Hello,
> I understand mithtv is full solution but writing qt accessibility support is going to be damn complicated. It is a huge codebase and no one has ever considered accessibility before.
> I would be happy if something like this existed but I think it is not a project for a few open-source developers developing in their spare time.

The problem I have is: will it be more complicated, and more kludgy than trying to extend what I've done by building on MythTV's support for LCD displays? All of MythTV's user interface objects are subclasses of a base MythUI class, and there aren't that many subclasses. I think an approach based on Qt accessibility is doable.

FWIW, I'm retired and I used to be a pretty good developer, so I think I have the ability and the time to make MythTV accessible to those with no or poor vision.

Another problem I have, before investing more time and effort, is whether the mythtv devs would be likely to accept my work into the mainline source code. For that, I think I need to demonstrate there's a "market" for talking mythtv. That's why I joined this list. Although mythspeech is not a complete solution, it is a starting point and I would love it if I could recruit some more users.

> BTW do you know projects such as gnome dvb daemon or tvheadent? These dont implement user interface and perfecting and / or writing a totem plugin for these would be avesome as well. Those apps can be setup without eye sight even now however gnome dvb daemon is somewhat buggy and not used frequently and tvheadent is stable, has web based interface. There is excelent fully accessible client for Android for it. So maybe oneday someone will like to create accessible client app for linux as well.

No, I am not familiar with those. I am a MythTV user, and a retired developer, looking for ways to combine my interests and my skills. I'm not so sure I'm ready to learn about projects that do less (from my perspective) than MythTV.

> Greetings
>
> Peter
>
>
>
> On 22. 12. 2012 22:45, faginbagin wrote:
>> I'd like to announce Mythspeech, which makes it easier for the blind
>> and/or visually impaired to use MythTV, an open source DVR (digital
>> video recorder).
>>
>> Information about MythTV can be found here: http://www.mythtv.org/
>> It is supported by Ubuntu and there is a Ubuntu based distribution
>> customized specifically for MythTV, Mythbuntu: http://www.mythbuntu.org/
>>
>> More details about Mythspeech can be found here:
>> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/MythSpeech
>>
>> Mythspeech is not a perfect solution, but I'm told by one user:
>> "Maria is VERY happy with her talking MythTV, and it has made her life
>> so much easier!"
>>
>> How imperfect is the current implementation of mythspeech? One glaring
>> example is that it cannot help with the initial setup and configuration
>> of MythTV. I think you will need some vision or a friend or family
>> member who can help with this step.
>>
>> I would very much like to talk to developers with experience in
>> accessibility. The current implementation of Mythspeech builds on
>> MythTV's support for LCD displays and uses speech-dispatcher's API, but
>> I'm thinking a better long term approach might be to implement Qt's
>> accessibility classes. MythTV is a Qt application, but it does not use
>> Qt widgets.
>>
>> I would also like to know if there are interested users whose first
>> language is not English. MythTV has been translated into many languages,
>> and mythspeech should be able to speak in those languages, if they are
>> supported by speech-dispatcher. But there are some things that could be
>> improved if there is interest.
>>
>> Of course, I welcome any and all feedback, bug reports, etc.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Helen
>>