Vinux is going to be the best you get if you want something purely Ubuntu based using Unity. Whatever derivative of Ubuntu that uses Gnome 3 may also work as the Gnome Accessibility team is much larger & active than anything we've ever been able to gather for Ubuntu. I attempted to get life into the Ubuntu Accessibility Team several years ago, but when my own health became too poor for me to run things, it disappeared again. As far as I know, there's still only one person, Luke Yelavich, actively working on Ubuntu accessibility coding & it's not what he gets to work on (he's a Canonical employee, but does much of the accessibility work on his own time). As of several years ago, Luke was planning on using Vinux to test work for all accessibility features so it may be better than you expect.
Despite the inactivity as an overall team, you may want to post some of your questions/feedback to the Ubuntu Accessibility mailing list ( ubuntu-accessibil...@lists.ubuntu.com ). It's actually still somewhat active & there are users who can answer some of your questions specific to how to maximize accessibility and feedback in general. Several of the users also use other Linux distros so may be able to help you look at what distros might work better for you. Vinux has its own list, but I don't have the address at hand. Unfortunately, Windows and MacOS are far ahead of Linux when it comes to operating system accessibility, at the moment. I don't know about Android (I've heard mixed reviews on accessibility & don't use it myself), but iOS is also substantially better. The problems catching up mostly come from lack of people working on it & different things that are harder to create in an open source environment (trying to get a large enough open source database to use for voice dictation, for example). I think accessibility is one aspect where the idea of scratching your own itch hurts projects; accessibility features don't become someone's itch until they or someone they know needs them. With Ubuntu, specifically, it can be difficult for volunteers to be able access/work on the code before a release comes out. The work I tried to do with the accessibility team was more about community, trying to get more people interested in contributing (in a variety of ways), & creating tools to make it easier for developers to understand what needs people with a variety of impairments needed. I do think eventually Ubuntu & other Linux distros will improve their accessibility to at least become equal with Windows & MacOS (there was a time when Ubuntu/Gnome was actually slightly ahead in some ways). I just don't know whether that'll happen in 3 years or 10. In the meantime you have to figure out what will work best for you. Good luck! Penelope On Tue, Sep 22, 2015 at 9:59 AM, David Goldsbrough <da...@boavon.plus.com> wrote: > Many thanks for all the contributions to date. I have learnt a great deal > from these and my further researches. > > When it comes to LUG I tried to involve myself years ago but sadly I live > too far away in Wiltshire to involve myself with that one which is largely > defunct now I think and the ones nearer to me in Somerset don't seem to be > too active either. In any case I cannot drive now due to my vision > issues. I am now in my early 60s and have vast IT experience including a > former HP-UX systems administrator - quite some years ago now. > > Back to the problem. I failed myself here. My initial problem was my > failing eyesight. I tried a few things in Ubuntu including screen readers, > magnifiers etc but with little satisfaction. Then I came across Vinux > distro and thought I would give it a whirl. I downloaded the ISO onto the > machine previously stated and tried to burn it to DVD ROM. > > This is when I discovered the 2 drives were not working yet they were fine > in Windows. I have then spent too much time trying to fix this rather than > my original problem! > > The funny thing is I don't expect the distro to be much better than I have > already tried. Sadly, I have found windows much better when it comes to > making changes to mouse pointers/cursors and ones which don't only work > inside a browser. And my android tablet is much better again enabling me > to do voice to text input and using gestures. IMHO Linux has a long way to > go to catch up with android/windows when it comes to assistive features. > > > capacity: 960KiB > capabilities: pci pnp apm upgrade shadowing cdboot bootselect > socketedrom edd int13floppy360 int13floppy1200 int13floppy720 > int13floppy2880 int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer > int10video acpi usb ls120boot zipboot biosbootspecification > *-network > description: Ethernet interface > product: MCP73 Ethernet > vendor: NVIDIA Corporation > physical id: f > bus info: pci@0000:00:0f.0 > logical name: eth0 > version: a2 > serial: 00:22:15:75:5c:a2 > capacity: 100Mbit/s > width: 32 bits > clock: 66MHz > capabilities: pm msi bus_master cap_list ethernet physical > mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation > configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes > driver=forcedeth driverversion=0.64 latency=0 link=no maxlatency=20 > mingnt=1 multicast=yes port=MII > resources: irq:43 memory:efffd000-efffdfff > ioport:d800(size=8) memory:efffc000-efffc0ff memory:efffb000-efffb00f > *-scsi:0 > physical id: 2 > logical name: scsi2 > capabilities: emulated > *-disk > description: ATA Disk > product: SAMSUNG HD502IJ > physical id: 0.0.0 > bus info: scsi@2:0.0.0 > logical name: /dev/sda > version: 1AA0 > serial: S13TJ90Q856720 > size: 465GiB (500GB) > capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos > configuration: ansiversion=5 sectorsize=512 signature=dc73c785 > *-volume:0 > description: Windows NTFS volume > physical id: 1 > bus info: scsi@2:0.0.0,1 > logical name: /dev/sda1 > version: 3.1 > serial: fa96e062-bf8a-194f-ade2-eace3d485366 > size: 15GiB > capacity: 15GiB > capabilities: primary ntfs initialized > configuration: clustersize=4096 created=2008-09-12 > 23:17:51 filesystem=ntfs label=Win_RE state=clean > *-volume:1 > description: Windows NTFS volume > physical id: 2 > bus info: scsi@2:0.0.0,2 > logical name: /dev/sda2 > version: 3.1 > serial: 94c0f60a-4270-8f41-9f5b-01654e3e04ec > size: 301GiB > capacity: 301GiB > capabilities: primary bootable ntfs initialized > configuration: clustersize=4096 created=2008-09-12 > 23:17:48 filesystem=ntfs label=WinVista state=clean > *-volume:2 > description: Extended partition > physical id: 3 > bus info: scsi@2:0.0.0,3 > logical name: /dev/sda3 > size: 148GiB > capacity: 148GiB > capabilities: primary extended partitioned > partitioned:extended > *-logicalvolume:0 > description: Linux filesystem partition > physical id: 5 > logical name: /dev/sda5 > logical name: / > capacity: 145GiB > configuration: mount.fstype=ext4 > mount.options=rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro,data=ordered state=mounted > *-logicalvolume:1 > description: Linux swap / Solaris partition > physical id: 6 > logical name: /dev/sda6 > capacity: 3325MiB > capabilities: nofs > *-scsi:1 > physical id: 3 > logical name: scsi3 > capabilities: emulated > *-cdrom > description: DVD-RAM writer > product: CDDVDW SH-S223F > vendor: TSSTcorp > physical id: 0.0.0 > bus info: scsi@3:0.0.0 > logical name: /dev/cdrom > logical name: /dev/sr0 > version: SB00 > capabilities: removable audio cd-r cd-rw dvd dvd-r dvd-ram > configuration: ansiversion=5 status=nodisc > *-scsi:2 > physical id: 5 > logical name: scsi4 > capabilities: emulated > *-cdrom > description: DVD-RAM writer > product: CDDVDW SH-S223F > vendor: TSSTcorp > physical id: 0.0.0 > bus info: scsi@4:0.0.0 > logical name: /dev/sr1 > version: SB00 > capabilities: removable audio cd-r cd-rw dvd dvd-r dvd-ram > configuration: ansiversion=5 status=nodisc > *-scsi:3 > physical id: 6 > bus info: usb@1:8 > logical name: scsi6 > capabilities: emulated scsi-host > configuration: driver=usb-storage > *-disk:0 > description: SCSI Disk > physical id: 0.0.0 > bus info: scsi@6:0.0.0 > logical name: /dev/sdb > configuration: sectorsize=512 > *-disk:1 > description: SCSI Disk > physical id: 0.0.1 > bus info: scsi@6:0.0.1 > logical name: /dev/sdc > configuration: sectorsize=512 > *-disk:2 > description: SCSI Disk > physical id: 0.0.2 > bus info: scsi@6:0.0.2 > logical name: /dev/sdd > configuration: sectorsize=512 > *-disk:3 > description: SCSI Disk > physical id: 0.0.3 > bus info: scsi@6:0.0.3 > logical name: /dev/sde > configuration: sectorsize=512 > > > > -- > ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk > https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ > >
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