Re: Linux distros with gnome speech reading capabilities included

[Tom and Esther <tward earthlink net>]

Hi, Andrew.
I had sent you a private email on this earlier this week, but do a to  
virus on  my XP computer  my emails got bounced back at me.
Gnopernicus has a long way to go before you can rank it up there with  
Window Eyes and Jaws or any other screen reader you probably are  
familiar with. However, I can do many things with gnopernicus every  
day, and with 2.4 and beyond there is a few apps that work well, and  
some that can be used but aren't not fully accessible yet.
You asked about what I use for email under Linux. I am using the balsa  
email client in which this email was sent to you by.  Balsa is pretty  
accessible, but there are a few issues with it that need to be  
mentioned.
1. Sometimes after sending an email via smtp balsa and gnopernicus will  
totally crash. I am not sure why, but I am looking at filing bug report  
on it soon.
2. When you attempt to read a message gnopernicus's flat review bug  
won't allow you to read the message contents. The solution is to go to  
the mail drop down, select reply, and then read the email contents.

here is some other apps I use besides balsa.

1. I use gedit for doing my programming and editing text documents.  
Gedit is much like Windows notepad.
2. If you have java access bridge installed you can use Openoffice  
1.1.1 which Openwriter and Opencalc are somewhat accessible. Actually,  
I use Opencalc alotand Openwriter  more than MS Excel and Word these  
days, but there are accessibility issues that need to be solved.  
However, they are usable if you want to or have to use them.
3. I can use cdrecord in gnome-terminal to burn cd's, and several other  
command line apps which are somewhat accessible with gnopernicus.  
However, if you use command line apps yasr is a good addition for  
handling text based apps.




On 04/30/2004 11:03:39 AM, Andrew Meravi NJFB wrote:
> whoops accidently hit send on the last message before I wrote
> anything!
> Thanks alot for your response, I got the speech working finally.  I
> installed Fedora core 2 test 2 and the speech worked right after
> install.  However, it does not seem very usable so far, perhaps it
> will
> get better when I learn how to use the layers, etc.
> Is there any good documentation you know of out there on how to use
> it.
> I am going to download the gnome accessibiity guide but thought there
> might be something else that would be worthwhile.
>
> If you could send me over your installation notes on how you set up
> gnopernicus on mandrake 9.2, and where you found all the rpm's to
> cover
> the dependencies, I would be very appreciative.  I will probably try
> to
> set that up on another box for testing purposes.
>
> Also, one more question:  What do you use for email in linux?  I am
> trying to use mozilla mail but doesn't seem accessible at all.  I am
> assuming it has alot of the same issues that the mozilla browser  
> does,
> from the recent posts I saw on the accessibility list.
>
> Thanks again!
>
>
> Andrew Meravi
> Network Administrator
> NJ Foundation for the Blind
>
>  -----Original Message-----
> From: gnome-accessibility-list-admin gnome org
> [mailto:gnome-accessibility-list-admin gnome org] On Behalf Of Tom  
> and
> Esther Ward
> Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 6:38 PM
> To: Andrew Meravi NJFB
> Cc: gnome-accessibility-list gnome org
> Subject: Re: Linux distros with gnome speech reading capabilities
> included
>
>
>
> Hi, Andrew.
> I am currently running gnopernicus on a Mandrake 9.2 system with
> festival and Dectalk Software.
> How I did the install was I copied all the necessary rpms with
> dependancies for festival and gnopernicus from my Powerpack cd's to a
> backup drive.
> Then, my wife read the Mandrake 9.2 installation to me.  when the
> installation was finished as root I opened gnome-terminal, used cd to
> switch to my directory where the gnopernicus rpms was, used rpm to do
> a
> batch install of all the packages.
> After that I opened run using alt+f2, typed gnopernicus, answered yes
> to
> assistive technology support, and gnopernicus ran.
> I can send you installation notes on how to do the installation on
> Mandrake 9.2 with packages to do the job, or I can remotely do the
> installation on a fresh mandrake 9.2 system if you would like.
> If you want further information you can contact me at:
> tward1978 earthlink net
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Andrew Meravi  <mailto:ameravi njffb org> NJFB
> To: gnome-accessibility-list gnome org
> Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 11:52 AM
> Subject: Linux distros with gnome speech reading capabilities  
> included
>
>
> Does anyone know if there any linux distributions available with
> gnopernicus installed and usable after installation?
> I am currently trying to use the latest slackware distro, that has
> gnome-speech and gnopernicus included with it,
> but I cannot get it to work at all.  The speech will not work, at
> least.
> I have been working on this project for a month
> now (I am a linux newbie) with no luck whatsoever.  I have also tried
> getting it to work on Mandrake 9, and could not
> even get gnopernicus to run the configure script all the way through.
>
>
> If anyone out there is in the northern NJ area, and has successfully
> set
> up screen reading in linux and is very comfortable with it,
> I would be open to hire a consultant to get this up and running for
> our
> organization.
>
> If anyone is interested please email  ameravi njffb org
>
> Andrew Meravi
> NJ Foundation for the Blind