Sorry for the late reply.  You may want to take a look at sonar linux and the 
accessible computing foundation.

From: Penelope Stowe <pst...@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [ubuntu-uk] . Re: Twin DVD drives not mounting
Message-ID:
<CANzKah9Gbnb_tA4yS=piwnbuk8wdq2cpm87zrsaxfpxaglz...@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

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.
>
>


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