access_open_src - Profile (original) (raw)

The purpose of this community is to discuss Open Source alternatives in a way which makes them more accessible to the average computer user who may be intimidated by the often overly-technical language surrounding Open Source. This community is an offshoot of my Blind Bookworm Blog http://kestrell.livejournal.com
and my goal is to document some of my own adventures and misadventures with open source media and technology. Straight off, I should say that I am not a programmer nor do I play one on the blogosphere--I just want easier access to books, music, online course materials, and the other goodies which led us all here to this particular playground we call the Internet.

Links List

Note 1: You can move to the next item in the links list below by using control+f to search for the character string ++ (that is, plus plus).
Note 2: This is a work in progress, more links and resources will be added soon.

++Accessify Forum - a discussion forum devoted to all topics relating to web accessibility. Topics cover everything from 'Beginners' and 'Site
building and testing' through to projects such as the new accessibility testing tool WaiZilla and the accessibility of the open source forum software itself.
Join in the fun at:
http://www.accessifyforum.com .

++DSpeech - free program used to convert text to mp3
For tutorial, refer to
http://www.accessibleworld.org/

++DTBMaker
http://w3.wmcnet.org/dtbmaker/
DTBMaker is a set of perl scripts which can be used to produce Daisy Digital Talking Books (DTB). DTBMaker was developed for the Wyoming Medical Center and is free released under the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE.
(At least 32000 KHZ with 64 bit (FM recommended for good quality audio(

++E-Access Bulletin
Software For Everyone.
http://www.headstar.com .
To subscribe to this free monthly bulletin, email
eab-subs@headstar.com
with 'subscribe eab' in the subject header.

++Emacspeak - developed by blind programmer T. V. Raman
http://emacspeak.sourceforge.net/

++Firefox browser

++Fire Vox - Firefox extension which provides a free Open Source screen reader developed by Charles Chen
http://www.firevox.clcworld.net/
Also note that there is a reader for sighted users
CLiCk
http://clickspeak.clcworld.net/

++firefox mailing list for screen reader users
firefox-request@freelists.org
http://software.newsforge.com/software/06/03/13/1628249.shtml?tid=150

++Hofstader.com
http://www.hofstader.com/
Blind programmer Chris Hofstader established this community resource for those interested in developing Open Source applications and Jaws scripts for the MicroSoft Windows operating system, though he hopes to also add software for the GNU/Linux and Macintosh platforms as well as configurations for other screen readers.
Ad Lib Technology - Chris Hofstader's accessible software company

++IBM IAccessible2 accessibility programming interface for Microsoft Windows.
http://accessibility.freestandards.org/a11yspecs/ia2/docs/html/
This interface is an extension of the Microsoft Active Accessibility API and the Microsoft IAccessible
interface which fills in the many gaps of MSAA by extending it to essentially match the
Java Accessibility API
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/javax/accessibility/package-summary.html
and the
GNOME/UNIX Accessibility API
http://www.gnome.org/~billh/at-spi-idl/html/

++Peter Korn's blog (Korn is an accessibility architect at Sun Microsystems)
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/korn

++Linear algebra eTextbook _A First Course in Linear Algebra_
http://linear.ups.edu
free textbook by Prof. Robert A. Beezer of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at University of Puget Sound that has TeX source available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL).
Available in a selection of formats including MathML/XML which will render very well in Firefox if you add the suggested fonts for mathematics

++Infty Project - math OCR program to scan math materials
http://www.inftyproject.org/en/
Made in Japan, so documentation in English is quirky:

++OpenOffice.org
http://www.openoffice.org/

++Open Office Accessibility
http://ui.openoffice.org/accessibility/

++Open Office (portable Apps version which can be loaded onto a flash drive)
http://portableapps.com/apps/office/suites/portable_openoffice

++Open Culture post on resources for making and disseminating podcasts:
http://www.oculture.com/weblog/2006/12/podcast_primer.html

++open source Assistive Technology Software (OATS) website
http://fastlink.headstar.com/oatsoft

++Open Source and Open Documents statement from Massachusetts
http://www.dpcma.org/opensource/positionstatement.html
About the state of Open source accessibility, including a joint statement on OpenSource & OpenDocuments in Massachusetts issued by the Disability Policy Consortium and the Bay State Council of the blind.

++Ubuntu Linux
http://www.ubuntu.com/access/
comes with <its own screen reader ++Orca http://www.gnome.org/projects/orca/ ++Ubuntu accessibility mailing list forum wiki Ubuntu accessibility team https://launchpad.net/people/accessibility #ubuntu-accessibility channel on irc

accessibility, books, daisy, daisy talking books, ebooks, education, etextbooks, fire vox, firefox, free culture, hci, iaccessible2, ibm, larry lessig, linux, lsr, nfty, open culture, open office, open source, orca, peter korn, project gutenberg, science fiction, sf, universal design, usability