[Kde-accessibility] experimental idea with colour fonts

[Gustav Degreef]

On 10/14/2014 12:02 AM, michel wrote:
> Dear Gustav 
>
> my comments are bellow your's
>
>>> They are various things you can experiment with. I don't have your eyes,
>>> you have to do this your self.
>> I think you need to learn more about visual problems before you can
>> assist people who have serious visual impairment.  This is a
>> fascinating, perhaps promising project.  I don't know it's potential -
>> at this point it's a theory.
> Visual problems vary a lot. From the nearly normal to the almost blind. With 
> weird variations.
> It's not possible to give all sizes fit all solution.
>
> They are some people, that they have to literally put their faces right in 
> front of a screen, with letters magnified to almost the full hight of the 
> screen , to be able to read. These, would benefit hands down with a colour 
> alphabet....
>
> The user has to define the colours that best uses what is left of his vision.
> In combination with other existing methods like zooming......
> At the very least, reading will become less straining.
> Individualized solutions, will always beet "mass produced" generic solutions.
>
>>> The default is crap, just a demo. I just put in random colours. Even, all
>>> the numbers are the same colour :P. You'll need to chose what is easy for
>>> you.
>> I think that would be true with a proven "technology".  This is still in
>> the experimental state, pre-alpha.  I don't have other assitive tech
>> that I am struggling with, learning to cope with.  I think you need to
>> refine this.
> The "technology", is supposed to make it easy for you to change the colours.
> For kate, the redefinition of colours is simple. It's all gui, no need to edit 
> a cryptic config file. No one will code something easier, until he gets 
> feedback, that the idea will be actually be used in real life....
>
> I can edit the file for you, if that's the real concern...
> You still need to tell me what colours you want though...
> I'm not going to suck that from my thumb...
>
> At the very least, try this.
> Change all backgrounds to black, and the letters to yellow( like what you use 
> now).
> Then change one letter and it's background to a different colour, a letter that 
> challenges you the most. For example, a dyslexic would chose "b" or "d". I 
> would chose red. So in my example, you'll have a red rectangle in place of "b" 
> and all the rest, yellow on black.
> With a test like this, you should see and immediate small improvement.
>
> ..... i can just edit the file for you. You'll just need to delete the old, put 
> in the new and restart kate. (a new default)
>
> I can prepare all the configurations that you would want to test....
>
>> This is a fascinating, perhaps promising project.
> You could at least stay and endure some experimentation?
> It's hard to find people with visual impairments.
> Or maybe help me find some volunteers?
>
> ....You get KDE for free, this could be your small way in contributing 
> something back....
> Also, think of the kittens :P
>
> I'm trying not to abuse your patience..... :)
>
> regards 
>
> Michel
I appreciate your efforts to help visually impaired KDE users and your
efforts are commendable.  Due to other commitments I can not commit time
to this worthy idea.  Please excuse any comments on my part that have
come across as "critical".  I have no criticism for your ideas, my
comments are only an effort to contribute.   At present, I can not
contribute hands on experimentation, I can only contribute ideas.  If
those ideas are not helpful, please discard them.

The tools I have which have been most helpful, I obtained at an
excellent low vision center in Indiana, US.  There are a number of such
low vision centers.  Usually an optometrist (non-physician) or
ophthalmologist (physician) is in charge of the center.  You could find
one in your locale and talk to the director to see if you could "test"
your project on some of their patients.  Alternatively you could speak
to a someone in the local university who is doing research on visual
impairment and they could help guide you as to which population of
visually impaired subjects may be most helped.  You could also make a
poster presentation and apply to present it at an ophthalmology
conference.  In this way you could make a personal connection with a
physician who could help you with getting your project tested on their
patients.

I would suggest refining the project before further "testing".  You
yourself mention that some aspects of it are still "rudimentary".   For
example, it needs a clear strategy to deal with numbers, spaces between
words and how to deal with punctuation and non numeric characters
(*,@,#, etc.).  Best wishes, Gustav.