Using Ubuntu

[Dave Hall]

On Sun, 2008-07-13 at 18:04 +1000, Gregory Storer wrote:
> I just wanted to tell you about my 80 year old dad and computers.  He's
> never used one (Although he tells me he did two years of typing, the
> nuns thought it important that he knew)
> 
> Dad is mostly blind, and the thing he misses the most is newspapers.
> He's an avid follower of news, and misses the indepth articles.
> 
> Using Ubuntu, an old modem and Orca Screen reader, I've set it up for
> him to read the Age Online - text version.  
> 
> http://www.theage.com.au/text
> 
> It works quite well
> 
> Knowing he wouldn't be able to handle a mouse, I used the configuration
> editor to map the Control keys to firstly dial the modem (control + 1)
> and then open firefox (control + 2) (had all sorts of problems with
> firefox always starting 'offline')  I set the sticky keys to allow him
> to press the control button and let it go, then press 1 and let it go.
> (I put some raised felt number stickers on the keys for him - from a
> craft shop) I also slowed down the key rate so he wouldn't open multiple
> browsers.
> 
> Somewhere along the way I set Firefox to allow a cursor to scroll
> through a web page.
> 
> I increased the zoom level of the browser, to what I assume is maximum
> and 3 or 4 words appear on each line.  Orca then reads those words and
> he using the down arrow to scroll through The Age index, he can hear the
> words and which helps him work out what's on the screen, he then presses
> enter to go the article, and follows the same procedure to read the
> article the back space to get back to the index.
> 
> He handled it pretty well. With a bit of practise he'll do fine.
> 
> He shuts the computer off by simply pressing the power button.  I set
> Firefox so that it wouldn't ask if he wanted to restart a crashed
> session.
> 
> Now that he seems happy with it all, I'll talk to him about an ADSL
> connection, although the dial up works fine with the text version of The
> Age.  I also just used an old computer lying around at home and an old
> CRT.  I'm hoping that I can get the site up on his huge Plasma screen
> and a wireless keyboard so he can really see the words.
> 
> I wasn't able to work out how to start Firefox already on full screen
> (it appears you have to start it then press F11) and I haven't yet
> worked out how to get Firefox to 'jump' to the next headline using
> keyboard combinations.  I thought I'd try some other browsers to see if
> any of the others worked in a better way.
> 
> Any suggestion on how to make this an even better experience for him
> would be most welcomed!

Great story.  Here I was thinkin that my 60ish mother in law was doing
well with the tux.

For fullscreen firefox you might want to look at
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1568

Cheers

Dave