Re: gnome/gtk for those with low vision

[Geoff Reedy <vader21 imsa edu>]

On Fri, Nov 03, 2000 at 01:35:44AM -0600, Geoff Reedy <vader21 imsa edu> said
> I would like to host a discussion on irg.gnome.org channel #gtkspeak Saturday
> (11/4) at around 2:00pm CST (20:00 UTC). I'll be on for some time before then
> (nick: mallowman) too so drop by any time really.  

Well, that was a flop. Noone showed up.

Are people not interested or was the timing bad (too short notice, bad time
of day, etc).  I personally think that this would be a great thing for GNOME
to have.  Imagine being able to say that gnome is the first (AFAIK) desktop
environment with UI reading out of the box.  I thought people were interested
in accessibility enhancements for gnome.

Perhaps my intention was unclear.  gtkspeak is just something that I threw
together in the last few days just to see how feasible something like this
might be, and my conclusion is that it would be feasible.  It is by no means
complete, nor is it really all that useful, it reads buttons and menus, but
thats about it.  My idea was that on irc people could offer suggestions and
ideas as to the best way to do this.  I know there are people out there who
would really like to use X/GNOME but cannot because there are no good screen
magnifications programs or screen/UI readers, I happen to know one of them
personally.  I am soliciting suggestions about both the programming and
implementation of such a UI reader and how it should read things (as in what
would be most useful to someone with low vision).  Even if you are sighted
(as I am, and for that I am grateful) maybe someone you know is not, or maybe
you have a really good idea on how to program this thing (my code is really
sloppy and hastily thrown together over a few days).

Sorry if this sounds a little rantish, but I was rather put off by the fact
that not a single soul showed up (I did get an email about it though, from
someone who is visualy impaired, who was very glad to see such a thing being
developed, thank you John for forwarding that to him).  Actually I did get
another email from someone invovled with the Gnome Sound Project, although I
fail to see the connection from gtkspeak to them, other than that they both
make noise, clarification anyone.

-- 
Geoffrey Reedy                                       vader21 imsa edu

"Unix-to-Unix Copy Program;" said PDP-1.  "You will never find a more
wretched hive of bugs and flamers.  We must be cautious."
				-- DECWARS