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List:       koffice
Subject:    Would help with blind/mobile use of KOffice with speech/braille
From:       Aaron Leventhal <aaronl () chorus ! net>
Date:       1999-11-29 23:27:13
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Yes. I'd love to help make not only KOffice but also KDE Qt apps work with
speech and eventually Braille.
A little about myself: I worked for years on a word processor used both by
blind/visually impaired users and professional Braille publishers.
The problem with providing speech support at levels other than the
component level, such as a layer on top, is that the best speech software
would know about internal structures and data, and not rely on what's on
the screen. I'd like to provide support at the component level so that
everything works elegantly for the user.
My first question then, which is not political at all but practical, is
will I be able to work on underlying components that KDE relies on to
include speech capability in them. I know similar work is happening with
gspeech in Gnome.
Second, can't KDE eventually evolve for mobile use? If we can make it work
well with limited screen real-estate or no screen (speech mode), why
shouldn't people use it there. In a few years mobile devices will have much
more memory and power! In fact, my funders (please keep this secret)
currently develop a note-taker for blind people with speech and a
refreshable braille line. A future version of their note-taker is going to
run Linux. See where I'm going? I can work on both goals at once - mobile
and blind use.
Regards,
Aaron Leventhal
Shapeable Software

P.S. My new email address is aaronl@chorus.net

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