Announcing the first release of an accessible derivitive of the Hoary Live CD Array 4

[Luke Yelavich]

Hi all

I am happy to announce the first testing/proof of concept release of an 
accessible derivitive of the Hoary Live CD, based on the recently 
released array CD 4. This CD aims to give blind/vision impaired linux 
users a chance to use the Gnopernicus screen reader, and explore the 
many features and applications of the GNOME and Ubuntu desktop.

Upon booting this CD, the Gnopernicus screen reader loads straight away, 
and begins speaking as you move around the desktop and GNOME panels. You 
can read through menus, edit text, surf the internet, and manage your 
files with constant spoken feedback to let you know where you are at all 
times.

Known issues:
-------------
* There is no way to notify the blind/vision impaired user that they 
need to press enter to continue booting the CD.
* The language and keyboard selection lists are not yet spoken. I am 
looking into this.
* You will get no startup sound or action sounds as you would normally 
get while using the ubuntu desktop, due to the speech server being 
unable to speak when esd is running.
* No console screen reading support, and less than useful gnome-terminal 
reading from gnopernicus.
* More that I haven't thought of yet. :)

TODO:
-----
* Fix the above issues.
* Braille display support from bootup.
* Possible magnification support. (Gnopernicus can do this, but it is 
not turned on.)
* Allowing speech and sounds to be heard simultaneously.
* Some starter documentation on how to use Gnopernicus.

If you find any problems, suggestions, or wish to help me with this 
effort, please send me an email and let me know.

Where can I get it?
-------------------
You can download the ISO from here:

ftp://themuso.homelinux.org/ubuntu/accessibility

Unfortunately, I only have 128kbps upstream bandwidth, so it may be a 
little slow. If you are able to offer approximately 520MB for hosting, 
and have a faster connection to the net, this offer would be much 
appreciated. Please get in contact with me so we can arrange an upload.

Enjoy!
-- 
Luke

Get my public GPG key here: http://www.themuso.com/themuso-gpg-key.txt
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