OLPC (oh and OSKng?)
David Bolter
http://laptop.org/
The plan is to eventually ship about a billion of these machines. That's
potentially a lot of children that could be served by accessibility
technology.
Steve, I'm getting some pokes and prods regarding GOK and OLPC and it
got me thinking about OSKng again. Have you considered OSKng potential
in the OLPC space?
Aaron, FWIW I've been chatting a little with David Humphrey about all
this; as well as a prof here at UofT who is considering open source
projects for a 4th year course (that is to be defined).
cheers,
David
Steve Lee
(OATSoft & ACE) have put in some thought and Henrik kicked off the most
recent round of discussion.
http://lists.becta.org.uk/pipermail/oats-sig/2006-November/000786.html
http://www.mail-archive.com/su...@laptop.org/msg00720.html
The device is attractive in use as a communications device (VOCA) due to
being rugged and low cost but would also need flexible mounting facilities (
e.g for wheel chair) and good speech. The lack of touch screen and small
size may be downsides. In terms of general Alt input I guess as long as it
has speech I/O and USB it should be usable (haven't checked specs). having a
portable alt input OSKng device should be attractive.
The social software aspects of Sugar are something I'm keen on and could be
a big enabling feature for users. The radical UI of Sugar might be
contentious but could be a plus for users not particularly familiar with
WIMPs and may have some advantage to those with cognitive needs.
So yes it has possibilities and some exploration would be a great. Having a
general FOSS AT platform would be great for offering choice and innovation
so perhaps OLPC + XULRunner + Jambu/GOK + Speech would be a great combo.
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--
Steve Lee
www.fullmeasure.co.uk
www.oatsoft.org
www.schoolforge.org.uk
Jason White
> http://laptop.org/
> The plan is to eventually ship about a billion of these machines. That's
> potentially a lot of children that could be served by accessibility
> technology.
I had been wondering how long it would take before a thread on this subject
appeared on the accessibility lists. Now that question's answered.
Jim Gettys, one of the organizers of OLPC, has been interested in
accessibility-related issues for a long time. Thus I wouldn't be at all
surprised if he and possibly other members of the development community have
been thinking about it.
As I understand it, much of the user interface for this is being designed from
the beginning, though it will include Mozilla and (informed guesswork here)
other established applications. Python is to be the principal language, which
could open the door to Orca as an assistive technology, especially if its
dependencies are kept within reasonable bounds (a matter that also arose
recently in connection with the accessibility of the debian installer). Of
course, the Orca->Mozilla connection is under heavy development currently, as
is LSR.
The main obstacle, I suggest, isn't the design of the assistive technology,
which should be possible given enough developer commitment, but the provision
of a free (as in price, and preferably also as in freedom) speech synthesis
system. In fact, I think it should be free as in freedom also, to enable
adaptation to local languages - an important consideration bearing in mind the
purpose of the OLPC project.
Braille display support could be provided by BRLTTY, but if you're in need of
an OLPC machine then there's no chance that you (or your school or community)
can possibly afford a braille display. Actually, there's an exception to this
- you might be extraordinarily lucky to the extent that somebody gives you
one. This actually happened to a student from Zimbabwe who was here some years
ago.
Steve Lee
what other language support is like.
Speech recognition is an area that needs development.
It is prolly worth keeping in mind a distinction between the accessibility
of the OLPC and using it as an assistive technology (e.g VOCA). Different
use cases but requiring much the same features/technology.
Norman Robinson
list. If anyone would like some feedback and review on
how Section 508 would apply to these devices or how
universally accessible these devices are, please let
me know.
I personally would be willing to help out and I'm sure
some of my peers would be interested as well.
I could see evaluating the existing set of
technologies or could see developing a specific image
designed for a range of people that have a specific
type of disability. It certainly is an interesting
problem as most experiences have been with bolt-on
assistive technologies, but that isn't where most of
the issues with accessibility are solved. I think this
device is somewhat of a hybrid in that sense.
At any rate, please contact me if I can be of
assistance or forward my contact information if you
think someone might benefit from a few years of
experience in the Section 508 accessibility arena.
Regards,
Norman B. Robinson
Michael Curran
Most have been hacked together by the main ESpeak developer, but I am aware
that many people are now giving him feedback and are improving on these
languages.
Many people who use NVDA choose to use ESpeak, so this synth is now starting
to get very known in both the Linux and Windows environments.
Mick