Accessibility Outline

Abstract 

There are approximately 500 million people worldwide with some kind
of visual, hearing or mobility impairment. There are currently over 54
million people with disabilities in the US alone and that number is
significantly increasing as the baby boomer generation continues to age.
People with disabilities often find it extremely difficult to effectively use
existing and emerging technologies designed without regard to their needs.
Web sites with inaccessible content can also be problematic for screen
readers and other specialized devices used by the disabled community.

Accessible features have been voluntarily integrated into operating systems,
web interfaces and other technologies because of marketing potential or
because it was "the right thing to do." Equal access to educational,
professional and recreational technologies is rapidly becoming a legal
requirement. Federal agencies in numerous countries are formulating
accessibility standards. Federal requirements in the United States went into
effect in June 2001.

There are specialized hardware devices, applications and utilities available
that considerably increase the usability of Linux for individuals with
special needs.

Table of Contents: 

1)Why should people choose Scientific Linux as an 
  accessibility solution?  
2)What kind of open source tools,utilities and drivers are available?  
3)Section 508 Mandate
4)Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates 
5)Reading news using Linux and Emacspeak 
6)Sending and reading email using Linux and Emacspeak
7)Browsing the Web using Linux and Emacspeak 
8)Using Emacspeak to execute Linux shell commands 
9)Using BRLTTY with Scientific Linux 
10)Using Speakup with Scientific Linux 
11)Where can I find more information on Linux accessibility?


1)Why should people choose Scientific Linux as an
  accessibility solution?

Linux offers an inexpensive and efficient solution for the disabled
community. Open source software costs far less compared to tools that run on
other operating systems and Linux tools are often freely download-able.

While the Graphic User Interface (GUI) is convenient for sighted users, it is
often inhibiting to those with visual impairments because of the difficulty
speech synthesizers have interpreting graphics. Linux is a great OS for users
with visual limitations because the GUI is not required by the kernel.  Most
modern tools including email, news, Web browsers, calendars, calculators and
much more can run on Linux without the GUI. The working environment can also
be customized to meet the hardware or software needs of the user.


2)What kind of open source tools, utilities and drivers are available?

Current development is focusing on visual and mobility impairments. There are
both software and hardware based solutions available. There are also both
console and graphic solutions available, however, the graphic solutions are
limited at this time. The GNOME Accessibility Project is making great
progress bringing the Gnome desktop up to speed.  The KDE Accessibility
Project is simultaneously working to make sure the KDE desktop is accessible
as well.

Hardware

The biggest advantage of the hardware speech solutions is that speech is
available before the OS loads (makes it easier to install). Hardware
solutions include speech synthesizers, braille terminals, braille printers,
sip and puff systems, eye gaze pointing devices, etc. These devices are
usually very expensive and it is difficult to find drivers for them. Drivers
are being written (mostly for speech synthesizers) for Linux but they need to
be tested and certified before they can be added to Scientific Linux's Hardware
Compatibility List. Jim Van Zandt has also written several servers that work
with Emacspeak. These servers can be found in a package called Emacspeak-ss
on Jim Van Zandt's webpage or linked within the Emacspeak HOWTO. For more
information on Emacspeak, please see http://emacspeak.sf.net/.

Software

This document focuses mostly on software tools and utilities that work
with Linux. Most of these tools have been developed by the Open Source
community and many have not yet been tested by Scientific Linux.
BRLTTY, Emacspeak, and Festival are included in Scientific Linux 3.0.x.  
Scientific Linux has plans to distribute Gnopernicus in
future products.  The following list of tools provide various
functions:

Software Speech Synthesizers
IBM ViaVoice Outloud
Festival
MBROLA

Emacspeak

Magnification Tools
xzoom
SVGATextMode

Speech Recognition Software
IBM ViaVoice
cvoicecontrol
Xvoice

Screen Readers
Screader
Speakup

Visual Bells

Visual Bell How To

Keyboard Tools
AccessX
StickyKeys
GTKeyboard

3)The Section 508 Mandate

The Section 508 Mandate is an addendum to the Rehabilitation Act of 1998 that
requires federal agencies to use accessible electronic and information
technologies so that people with special needs have the same opportunities as
everyone else.

For detailed information about the requirements of the Section 508 Mandate,
please see this link:

http://www.section508.gov/

4) The Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT)

The VPAT template details how a particular product or service conforms
to Section 508 criteria.  The VPAT helps federal personnel adhere to
Section 508 by helping them determine whether they are buying the most
accessible IT products and services available. The VPAT template
participation by private vendors is voluntary so these templates are
hosted on the individual vendor's websites.  The vendors maintain
their own information and the government does not endorse this
information in any way.

5)Reading news using Scientific Linux and Emacspeak

Gnus is the news reader included with Emacspeak. Gnus gets the appropriate
data from the .newsrc file in the user's home directory. If you wish to post
and read news through Emacspeak, please see my.news.org or www.gnus.org for
manuals, tutorials, HOWTOs, etc. To start Gnus, type the following:

M-x, gnus 

This command displays all the newsgroups you are subscribed to. To
select a newsgroup, highlight your selection and press the space
bar. Next, specify how many articles you would like to open. Type the
number you desire and press [Enter]. This splits the screen into
two buffers. The top section is the summary buffer, the bottom section
is the article buffer.  You should now be able to read your news. For
a detailed overview of this tool, please see the above link.

6)Sending and reading email using Scientific Linux and Emacspeak

There are several email clients available in Emacspeak. The Gnus utility can
actually be used for both email and news. Type

M-x, gnus

to start Gnus, then type

M

to use the mail client.

The easiest tool to use is RMAIL. To send a message using RMAIL, just type

C-x, m

within Emacspeak. Fill in the To: and Subject: fields. Put the body of the
message below the line that reads -text follows this line-. You can send the
message when you are finished by typing:

C-c, C-c

To read a message using RMAIL type:

M-x, rmail

For more information on using RMAIL please see
http://www.gnu.org/manual/emacs-20.3/html_chapter/emacs_31.html.

7)Browsing the Web using Scientific Linux and Emacspeak

You must download William Perry's w3 browser from
ftp://people.redhat.com/jlamb. You can install the package from the
FTP site after you log in as root and type

rpm -ivh ftp://people.redhat.com/jlamb/w3-4.0pre.44-1.i386.rpm

Once the package is installed, restart Emacspeak and type

M-x, w3

to start the browser. This opens the default homepage. For more
information on w3 including a tutorial and command explanation, please read
through the information on the default home page,
http://www.cs.indiana.edu/elisp/w3/docs.html.

8)Using Emacspeak to execute Linux shell commands

You do not have to leave Emacspeak to execute a Linux command. To
execute a command within Emacspeak, type

ESC !

then enter the name of the command you would like to run when Emacspeak
prompts you. To exit the command output window type:

C-x, 1

This functionality is extremely useful. You can even print and compile files
you are working on within Emacspeak. For more information on Linux shell
commands please see Josh's Linux Guide or any other comparable command
resource.

9)Using Speakup with Scientific Linux

Speakup is a GPL screen review package written by Kirk Reiser and Andy
Berdan.  Speakup gives users with visual or mobility impairments the ability
to have audible console feedback using a speech synthesizer. Scientific Linux
recommends Speakup for blind users because it provides an audible
installation and is fully supported by the blind open source community.

William F. Acker currently maintains the Speakup packages for the Scientific Linux
distribution.  His contributions to the open source community and to blind
Linux users have been outstanding.

Speakup works with the following hardware synthesizers:

DoubleTalk PC/LT
LiteTalk
Accent PC/SA
Speakout
Artic Transport
Audapter
Braille 'N Speak / Type 'N Speak
Dectalk External and Express
Apollo2

For more information about Speakup, or to contribute to the Speakup project
please see this link:

http://www.linux-speakup.org/

For instructions on how to use Speakup with Scientific Linux, please
see this link:

http://www.linux-speakup.org/ftp/disks/redhat/HOWTO_INSTALL.html

10)Using BRLTTY with Scientific Linux

BRLTTY is a tool for blind persons that uses a refreshable braille display to
provide access to the Linux command line mode.  BRLTTY ships for the first
time in Scientific Linux 3.0.1.  It drives the braille display, and
provides complete screen review functionality. Some speech capability has
also been incorporated.

For more information on how to use BRLTTY please see the project homepage at:
http://mielke.cc/brltty/


11)Where can I find more information on Linux accessibility?

The following documents offer helpful suggestions for making Linux more
accessible:

* Linux Access HOW-TO
	http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/Accessibility-HOWTO/index.html	

* Keyboard-and-Console-HOWTO
        http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/Keyboard-and-Console-HOWTO.html


These links may also be helpful: 

* Speakup Homepage
	http://www.braille.uwo.ca/speakup/

* Project Ocularis
	http://ocularis.sourceforge.net/events.php

* Trace Center
	http://trace.wisc.edu/

* Blinux
	http://leb.net/blinux/
