Accessibility, what would the perfect blind Linux Desktop be like for you? - Feddit
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Accessibility is a really important field. Everyone should have the right to use a free and friendly Operating System. But its a pretty nieche topic, and I also think current ways of implementing it are not perfect. I created a Thread on Fedora Discussion (Link) but Lemmy is way more active so I would love to spread attention to this topic, and collect your ideas. - How should a blind Desktop be structured? - Are there any big dealbreakers like Wayland, TTS engines, specific applications e.g.? - What do you think would be the best base Desktop to build such a setup on? - Would you think an immutable, out of the box Distro like “Fedora Silversound”, with everything included, the best tools, presets, easy setup e.g. is a good idea? - How privacy-friendly can a usable blind Desktop be? Also, how would you like to call it? “A Talking Desktop”? I am excited for your comments!

I am very curious and want to help to make Linux more accessible.

I wrote with some people and got some insights:

  • everything text, like a read-mode-only browser or a plain Terminal is best for TTS engines.
  • TTS engines are difficult, some are really good but need many resources, some are worse but save resources
  • TTS needs to be optimized to be really fast in some cases, to keep up with the speed
  • some apps are better, some are worse, but probably most apps dont really suit blind people, as the whole GUI concept makes no sense

I am really curious. How would it be best for you, braille vs. voice, voice input vs braille vs. gestures?

What apps do you find best, how do you browse the web, find media to listen, how do you use Document editors and what purpose do they have for you?

Thanks a lot!

  • RastislavKishEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    Ok, so much I guess for this post. :D Sorry if it got somewhat exhaustive, Linux is, like many environments unfamiliar to people, subject to a lot of myths and false information, so I thought it may be a good idea to clarify them before discussing where to move next. I shall do that in another post, actually getting to the question of the OP. :D Sorry again. Perhaps one last thing to address, people writing Linux has not been developed for desktop use… well, it’s true, Linux has been developed as a generic purpose operating system, for any use one can imagine. We have really fancy desktops, we have awesome web interfaces, server running folks can enjoy the power of containers, actually not just them, Vanilla OS brought up many interesting and innovative concepts from immutable desktop (what’s sort of a misleading name in certain sense, but whatever), to the principles of their apx manager, leveraging containers to unify software from different Linux distributions and integrating them into the OS. The flexibility is something that other systems can hardly compete with, so yes. We’re not just desktop folks, we have much more in the stack!

    P.S. I almost managed the character limit! 300 characters, what a pain, I hate these restrictions. :D

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