[KDE-India] [ILUG-BOM] new idea, screen reader for KDE desktop

[Vinayak Hegde]

On 9/10/06, krishnakant Mane <researchbase at gmail.com> wrote:
> hello,
> with a lot of accessibility related talk going out on this list, I
> just discovered that some thing is yet to be done.
> there is a big hole in the accessibility of gnu/linux desktop.  while
> the gnome desktop is getting more and more accessible slowly, there is
> nothing but an un organised start made on the k desktop side.
> there is a speach front end for the k desktop
> it is called ktts.
> the link was given to me by roni
> it is
> http://accessibility.kde.org/developer/kttsd/index.php
> if any one want to have a look.
> so we will not be re inventing the wheal but use the wheal to build up a car.
> + we have the engine of the car also.  I am refering to festival
> speach synthesizer.
> the mattter of fact is that it will be easiest to convert blind
> computer users to k desktop and thus linux, if we can provide a good
> screen reader.
> there are applications on the k desktop which make transition from
> windows to gnu/linux much easy as compared to gnome.  and then the
> programmers or any one interested can be gathered together for this
> kind of an organisation.  and the finansial aspect is that we can earn
> by providing this service to blind people.  they can and will happily
> give out a few thousand rs for this service as compared to rs. 80000 +
> for some screen reader on windows.
> thanks all
> waiting for feedback.
> Krishnakant.

Hi Krishnakant,

This is an excellent idea. Please join and make this post to the
KDE-india mailing list. In addition to this list you will find quite a few
KDE developers who might be interested in developing this.
There are more a couple people who develop for KDE as their day job.

Last but not the least, you might want to come to foss.in
for the KDE BoF so that people can talk face-to-face with KDE
developers. If there are enough interested people then maybe we
can have an accessibilty BoF at foss.in 2006.

I am ccing both KDE-india and foss.in in this reply.

-- Vinayak

ps: For context I am attaching Krishnakant's mail to the ilug-bom
mailing list some days back.

<quote>

hello all,
I had introduced myself in my previous email regarding gnopernicus.
for those who did not read it.
I am a new member from Mumbai.
my name is Krishnakant Mane and I am totally blind.
I have done research from IIT mumbai and now own a software firm.
basically I am posting this email to inform all that I am developing a
talking book reader.
it is a device which can be carried in the pocket and can be attached
to any scanner.
once the printed matter is scanned the ocr software will convert it
into text document or word document.
then the device can be detached and the blind person can read those
scanned documents any time any where.
we are using all free software including ocr softwares etc.  the
device will be running gnu with linux kernel booting from a USB pen
drive.
however I have certain issues regarding the system.  I also want to
make this a community project so more and more people can benifit.
I am not putting all the details in this email, but those who will be
interested in contrubuting to this project can email me personally on
researchbase at gmail.com or krmane at gmail.com as an alternative.
right now the major problem is to create a small linux kernel that can
have only sufficient modules to boot from a pen drive and support
sound.
please send me private emails if any one would be interested to assist.
thanking all
Krishnakant.

</quote>