Re: I need a computer with a friendly Unix-based user operating system!

[Jason White <jasonw ariel its unimelb edu au>]

Tom and Esther Ward writes:
 > Hi, Tim.
 > If your looking for shell based access there are several screen readers to
 > choose from, but for the Gnome desktop there is only Gnopernicus at this
 > time.

Correct. I should add that shell-based access is sufficient for many
purposes; what Gnome accessibility achieves is to widen the range of
software which is accessible. As a result, where the best tool for a
task happens to be a Gnome application, or software that has been made
accessible such as OpenOffice or Mozilla, Gnopernicus makes it
available via braille or speech.

In my opinion it is best to start not by saying that you have to be
able to use this or that application, but rather by considering the
tasks that you want to perform, then deciding what software is best
suited to your needs.

For example if you need to write documents you can either use a word
processor such as OpenOffice, or write the documents in a text editor
such as Emacs, using LaTeX, or HTML if your writing is destined
primarily for
the Web.

My main point is that Unix and Unix-like operating systems give you
options, and Gnome accessibility significantly adds to those. It also
provides support for screen magnification, on-screen keyboards and
other assistive technologies that weren't previously well established
under Unix-like systems. Thus it not only makes more software choices
available, but it also expands the range of assistive technology
options.