Getting Involved

[Benson Muite]

On Wed, Jun 4, 2025, at 7:58 AM, Bridger Reed-Lewis wrote:
> I have heard of him, and it’s one of the reasons why I want to get
> involved, at the moment I don’t think the university allows Linux to be
> used, but I could be wrong. At the moment, I am running KDE on my Steam
> Deck. But I’m planning on purchasing a think-pad x1 carbon Gen 10 soon. One
> area I’d like to see get added is dictation. There's an abandoned project
> here --> https://github.com/abb128/LiveCaptions that could be forked into a
> simple dictation tool, it's surprisingly, very accurate.

This seems to build on another library which maybe worth incorporating into
KDE applications:
https://github.com/abb128/april-asr

There are ongoing discussions withing KDE about using tools trained on
data of unknown origin.

>
> Outside of that, I would need to look because right now there's not a lot,
> and disability itself is a spectrum. without seeing what you are already
> working on, giving feedback might be hard. But I am more than willing to
> test anything you can give me, as long as you make the install process easy
> or give me command props.

KDE applications are listed at:
http://apps.kde.org
Some will work on Windows and Mac. Applications that might be useful in a university
setting include:
- https://apps.kde.org/labplot/
- https://apps.kde.org/ktechlab/
- https://apps.kde.org/accessibilityinspector/
- https://apps.kde.org/krita/
- https://apps.kde.org/okular/
- https://apps.kde.org/kdenlive/
- https://apps.kde.org/digikam/
- https://apps.kde.org/glaxnimate/

It seems there are faculty members familiar with open source software:
https://pradeeban.github.io/

Maybe you could contact them to see if there are ways to also involve students in
improving software accessibility?  Season of KDE (https://mentorship.kde.org/sok/)
would be one structured way to do this for KDE software that is useful at UAA.

Krita, Kdenlive and Glaxnimate may also be useful to people in your art department:
https://www.uaa.alaska.edu/academics/college-of-arts-and-sciences/departments/art
and to the student clubs in the art department:
https://www.uaa.alaska.edu/academics/college-of-arts-and-sciences/departments/art/clubs/

Finally, in terms of testing, is there a KDE application you use and would be willing to help
test? One-off contributions are welcome, but sustained involvement is most helpful.

>
> On Tue, Jun 3, 2025 at 20:28 Benson Muite <benson_muite at emailplus.org>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Jun 3, 2025, at 11:15 AM, Bridger Reed-Lewis wrote:
>> > Good evening, I am interested in becoming a tester, and help collaborate
>> > together on ideas to ensure accessibility in future kde iterations. Nate,
>> > one of the board members, let me know about your sub-group, and I
>> emailed a
>> > few folks listed as contacts. Just didn't hear back, figuring reaching
>> out
>> > directly to this email would be more effective.
>> >
>> > Before getting involved though, I should introduce myself. I am the
>> > disability advisor for The University of Anchorage Alaska, and while I am
>> > doing this on my own time. I do hope to get the university involved since
>> > we have a very active disability, and accessibility work groups at UAA.
>> >
>> > Recently, the university wrote a article about me which goes in detail
>> > about myself you can read about it here...
>> >
>> https://www.uaa.alaska.edu/news/archive/2025/05/chd-disability-advisor-bridger-r-reed-lewis.cshtml
>> >
>> >
>> > I'm very passionate about what I do, and I believe Steam OS as a whole
>> > could be a massive benefit to ensure a better market share, this comes
>> with
>> > some challenges though because while steam os is great for gaming, once
>> > it's released to the masses later this year.
>> >
>> > The OS as a whole will have some disadvantages mainly the lack of
>> > accessibility tools, which as someone with a disability has been the
>> > largest reason they haven't moved fully to linux. Ended up on Macs
>> because
>> > of how much i hate windows, but once thing apple has about them is there
>> > gold star for supporting disabilities in there OS.
>>
>> Thanks for your interest. Are there any KDE applications that you use where
>> support could be better?  Do you have any computer labs where linux is used
>> or KDE applications are used?
>>
>> KDE e.V. recently appointed Ritchie Frodomar as accessibility engineer:
>> https://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kde-community/2025q2/008193.html
>>
>> >
>> > I also want this in Linux, and I'm here to help along
>> > with assisting with networking with professionals to ensure
>> communications
>> > and collaboration with developers/companies alike. Let me know if you
>> have
>> > any questions, and I hope to chat with you soon.
>> >
>> > Sincerely,
>> >
>> > Bridger R. Reed-Lewis
>> > Disability Advisor | Advocate | Speaker
>> > He/Them
>>