Community Notebook Free Software Projects Projects on the Move Accessibility for computer users with disabilities is one of the noblest goals for Linux and open source software. Vinux, Orca, and Gnome lead the way in Linux accessibility. By Carla Schroder ccessibility of any kind for people with disabilities has a long history of neglect and opposition. The US Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibited fed- eral agencies from discriminating on the basis of disability (Sections 501, A503, 504, 508) [1]. Passing a law is one thing; enforcing it is another, and it took years of activism to make any progress. In the 1980s, the Reagan Adminis- tration targeted Section 504 (addressing civil rights for people with disabilities) for de- Lisa Young, 123RF regulation because it was too “burdensome.” Once again advocates organized, and after two years of intensive effort, they succeeded in preserving Section 504. However, years more of Supreme Court fights, legislative battles, and public education efforts had to be won. The culmination of that work was the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, which addresses some of the basic aspects of everyday life: employ- ment, public accommodations, telecommunications, and government agencies. This law still leaves an awful lot of gaps. Designing for accessibility is more than just bolting on a few aids as an afterthought – it’s a matter of architecture, of design- ing for everyone from the ground up. Accessibility covers a lot of ground, including: • Impaired vision to complete blindness • Impaired hearing to complete deafness • Color blindness • Difficulty or inability to type or use a mouse • Cognitive, learning, or reading problems • Low stamina, difficulty sitting up Talking computers have existed in science fiction for decades, but the world isn’t much closer to having them than it was 10 years ago. The Linux/ FOSS world has all the raw materials for making computing open and useful to all people, for overcoming individ- ual impairments, and for elevating everyone. Witness the Adriane version of Knoppix [2] for vision-impaired users, which appeared on a Knoppix DVD in a recent issue [3]. Windows and Mac OS X are far head of Linux in supporting accessibility, and they’ve barely scratched the surface. I encourage anyone looking to contribute to Free Software to consider accessible computing. There are grand opportunities to make significant, meaningful, and lasting differences in the realm of accessibility with Linux and FOSS. Vinux Vinux [4] is an Ubuntu remaster for the visually impaired created by Dr. Tony Sales, CARLA SCHRODER teacher of Psychology and Sociology at the Royal National College for the Blind in Her- ford, UK. Created in 2008, Vinux is now at stable version 3.01 (Ubuntu 10.04 LTS) and Carla Schroder is a gadgets enthusiast and Linux expert who has written The beta version 3.10 (Ubuntu 10.10). Most Linux distributions have accessibility features Book of Audacity, Linux Networking and applications, but users have to jump through a fair number of hoops to enable and Cookbook, Linux Cookbook, and hun- configure them. Vinux provides a screen reader, full-screen magnification, and support dreds of Linux how-to articles. for Braille displays out of the box (Figure 1). 92 JULY 2011 ISSUE 128 LINUX-MAGAZINE.COM | LINUXPROMAGAZINE.COM 092-094_projects.indd 92 5/17/11 11:34:19 AM Community Notebook Free Software Projects Vinux runs on a Live CD or USB flash instead of duplicating drive, from a hard drive installation, or work and reinventing the in a virtual machine on Windows. The wheel. Vinux name is a contraction of VI (visu- “We aim to produce a ally impaired) and Linux. The Vinux de- very user-friendly distro velopers chose Ubuntu as their base for that is completely acces- its polish, ease of installation, and good sible out of the box – in hardware support. other words, once you The challenges with accessible com- boot the Live CD, it talks puting are not just writing and support- to you, offers you a user ing good software but also chasing up- guide and keybinding stream projects. Ubuntu, Gnome, and lists, talks you through Firefox are three key players, and all are the installation, and so fast-moving, ever-changing targets. The on. Our primary target Vinux team members are justifiably audience are disgruntled Figure 1: The default Vinux theme is beautiful and comes proud of the 3.01 release, but like all good Windows/ JAWS users with full-screen magnification and support for Braille. The FOSS developers, they are looking ahead, who are fed up of paying Orca screen reader starts by default. and the forecast consists of “hard choices through the nose for pro- and hard work ahead” because both prietary solutions (see the ‘JAWS’ box). Unity and the Gnome Shell are scheduled Ubuntu is a brilliant and easy-to-use sys- to be released with Natty Narwhal tem for sighted users; we are just going (11.04), with no support for accessibility. one step further and making it an easy- Additional complications exist because to-use system for VI users. In an ideal both of these tools rely on 3D graphics world, all distros would be accessible, hardware acceleration. Call me grumpy, but in reality, accessibility is often an af- but I was grousing about this very thing terthought, and we are constantly play- long ago. I don’t think making important ing catch-up with upstream changes. I functionality dependent on 3D hardware believe there is a very real need for a acceleration is a good idea. But it’s com- Linux distro aimed specifically at dis- ing regardless of what I think. abled users, rather than expecting a dis- So the Vinux team had discussions on abled user to jump through hoops just to whether they should move away from get a working system. This is especially Ubuntu and build on Debian, Linux Mint, important in third-world countries, or something else. For now, they are stay- where Windows and JAWS are simply ing with Ubuntu. Dr. Sales tells me they not an option,” Sales said. are “working closely with Luke Yelavich Some of the key accessibility applica- of Canonical to set up an automated build tions in Vinux are the Orca screen server which will allow us to use Ubuntu reader/ magnifier, the eSpeak Speech as a base but utilize any of the desktops Synthesizer, Emacspeak, Speakup screen available in the repository – so we are in reader for the console, and the Compiz no way tied to Unity, and in fact the ac- screen magnifier and zoom tools (Figure cessibility profile in 11.04 will revert to 2). Orca supports all Braille displays via JAWS Gnome 2.” He estimates it will be a year the brltty daemon. USB Braille displays Jobs Access With Speech (JAWS) [5] is before Unity and the Gnome Shell work should work automatically, and serial a software screen reader for Windows out accessibility issues enough to support displays should only need a bit of config- that outputs screen text either in a syn- visually impaired users. uration. The Vinux team also include a thesized voice or in Braille. It costs US$ I asked Dr. Sales if Vinux needed more batch of helpers like EasyInstall-Codecs 895-1,095. It works with the Focus 40 contributors. He said, “We are always on and EasyInstall-Multimedia. Vinux in- and 80 dynamic Braille displays, which the lookout for new people to contribute stalls the UK keyboard layout by default. cost US$ 3,895 and 7,795, respectively. Braille displays replace the computer’s to the project, and there are many ways If you need to change this, go into Sys- monitor and are somewhat like little key- people can help, no matter what their tem | Control Centre | Keyboard. boards, except they do both input and technical ability – for example, testing output. The Focus displays have 40 or 80 and feedback, user support, documenta- Orca Braille cells, and each cell is a refresh- tion, publicity, and of course coding indi- The Orca screen reader is a feature-full able Braille character, so people who vidual packages and the distro itself.” Linux application for vision-impaired read Braille can read them like a paper He went on to say that the goal of the users, although it’s a long way from Braille document. The displays also sup- Vinux project is “to get VI developers to- being a serious JAWS competitor. Orca port navigation functions like page up and down, scrolling, paging, and Win- gether from all over the world to com- began life in 2004 as a Sun Microsystems dows keyboard shortcuts. bine their efforts into one single project project, and over time, it acquired fund- LINUX-MAGAZINE.COM | LINUXPROMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 128 JULY 2011 93 092-094_projects.indd 93 5/17/11 11:34:19 AM Community Notebook Free Software Projects ing and support from dard encodes Braille characters as eight- various sources. dot glyphs. Not all Braille embossers and Then, much of the displays support this new form yet. To funding went away, enable Grade 2 Braille, go to the Braille and when Oracle tab of Orca’s Preferences menu and check bought Sun, they laid Enable Contracted Braille. Just to keep off the Orca project life interesting, a Braille 3 is being devel- leads. Orca now is en- oped that is even more compact than tirely supported by Grade 2 – like shorthand. the Gnome project. An easy way to test Gnome Orca is to run a Live Gnome [6] has taken the lead in Linux edition of Vinux. The accessibility with features like complete Figure 2: Vinux comes with a good-sized batch of assistive aids.