Lisi wrote: > On Wednesday 29 April 2009 10:25:21 Sean Gibbins wrote: > >> My Dad is totally blind and briefly toyed with the idea of getting a PC, >> abandoning it when we couldn't find anything that would overcome his >> blindness that was truly usable. >> > > I know two totally blind people who use computers. I rather fear tho' that > they both use Windows. > > I am about to communicate with one of them by email.
Dad went blind in the army and as such is supported by St Dunstan's, so expense is not an issue and I am as happy supporting Windows as I am Linux, although for obvious reasons my preference is with the latter. The good thing with Adriane is that it comes on a live CD and would therefore not require an enormous investment to test, something that previously put Dad off. I may refloat the idea with him and report back on my findings. Indeed, I might give it a go blindfolded myself, although having spent many hours in proper blackout conditions (professional E6 film processing) I can say this is not quite the same as seeing no light. His primary use for a PC would be to browse the Web sites of audio book publishers, something he is currently dependent on my mum and my sister for. I think the problem we encountered was that a lot of the available software seemed to be of most use to partially sighted people, who are blind in a sense (no pun intended), but not totally blind like my father. He reads braille and I know that there are braille screen readers available, but it is best considered a good workaround from a previous age rather than an efficient way to communicate, according to Dad. He can also touch type, which I assume would be an enormous benefit. Adriane, the audio screen reader enabled version of Knoppix, seemed quite nice because it allows you to, say, start just a Web browser after booting into a simple menu of 8 or so items, cutting down on the amount of information flowing from the speakers to the ears of the blind person. That said, it is still pretty full-on as you tab between the screen elements and the machine-voice reads each one! I'd be interested to hear about acquaintances' experience with their OS, if they're amenable, Lisi. Sean -- The computer can't tell you the emotional story. It can give you the exact mathematical design, but what's missing is the eyebrows. Frank Zappa -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk --------------------------------------------------------------
