* E-ACCESS BULLETIN.

The email newsletter on
technology issues for people
with visual impairment and blindness.
E-Access Bulletin web site (including archive):
http://www.e-accessibility.com>




* SECTION THREE: FREE SOFTWARE
- LINUX.

* THE DAY OF THE GNU.
by Dan Jellinek
[log in to unmask]

The use of free software like the Linux operating system is not
widespread by visually impaired people, partly due to a general focus of
access technology development on Microsoft Windows. But this could
soon be set to change, with growing realisation of the high
accessibility,
affordability and flexibility of free software.

Many people equate free software with open source software, but not all
open source software is 'free', as defined by Richard Stallman's Free
Software Foundation (
http://www.fsf.org).

Stallman is also the developer of GNU, a free operating system which
was combined with a core or 'kernel' called Linux to form GNU/Linux
(commonly referred to simply as Linux).

The free software definition (
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-

sw.html) which applies to software developed under the 'GNU General
Public License' (and protected by a legally binding system called
'copyleft', a sort of anti-copyright) is emphatically about much more
than cost: 'free as in freedom' is the preferred mantra. Indeed, free
software can be sold, if people can find ways of adding value for
example through writing manuals.

The definition has four main elements: the freedom to run the program,
for any purpose (freedom 0); the freedom to study how the program
works, and adapt it (freedom 1); the freedom to redistribute copies
(freedom 2); and the freedom to improve the program, and release your
improvements to the public (freedom 3). Access to software source code
- 'open source' - is a precondition for freedoms 1 and 3.

At the RNIB's recent 'Techshare 2001' conference
(
http://www.rnib.org.uk/techshare)
Janina Sajka, director of technology
research and development at the American Foundation for the Blind
(
http://www.afb.org),
said the active free software development
community now numbers some 300,000 people worldwide.

"Free software has really taken off in the last year or so, including in
the
corporate world - IBM is spending a million dollars on Linux
development," Sajka said. "It is often of outstanding quality."

One of the easiest ways for screen reader users to gain an idea of
GNU/Linux is a free package called Speakup (
http://www.linux-

speakup.org), she said, which works with Linux to read all the screens
and messages aloud. It has not yet been accepted into the Linux 'kernel'
as a default standard, but there are three versions of Linux that do come
ready packaged with Speakup - Debian (
http://www.debian.org),
Red
Hat (
http://www.redhat.com)
and Slackware
(
http://www.slackware.com).

"With Speakup, a blind person or a deafblind person using Braille TTY
[teletypewriter] output can install and configure a computer operating
system from scratch for the first time," Sajka said.

Once Linux is installed, there is free software available to allow the
user
to carry out the whole range of tasks available to the Windows user, she
said. Content is generally first keyed into a raw text editor and then
formatted subsequently for output as a word processor document, web
page or whatever, a system which boosts accessibility.

There is a free software equivalent to the Microsoft Office suite of
desk-
top software packages, 'OpenOffice' (
http://www.openoffice.org),
a
form of which runs on 'GNOME' (
http://www.gnome.org),
one of the
major graphical interfaces for Linux. Both GNOME and OpenOffice
have been developed by Sun Microsystems in an attempt to break
Microsoft's hold on the desktop market.

As a point-and-click graphical environment like Windows, GNOME is
not as accessible as the basic 'command line' form of Linux, but Sajka
said Sun has recognised that it has to be made accessible, not least
because under US law software must be accessible if it is to compete for
federal contracts.

In November the 'Gnopernicus' project, led by German firm BAUM
(
http://www.baum.de),
was announced to develop combined screen
magnification and screen reader features for GNOME
(
http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gap/AT/Gnopernicus).

In Europe, another graphical interface for Linux is more commonly used
- KDE (
http://www.kde.org).
This too has an accessibility project
underway, although it is not as far down the line as the work for
GNOME, Sajka said.

Beyond the usual desktop applications, Linux also shines in the field of
internet and other communications, she said - "AT&T use it to run the
world's telephone systems."

The accessibility of the command line system means that Linux is
certainly the system of choice for blind computer programmers, she said,
and indeed there are many blind programmers working in this field. But
should the ordinary blind or visually impaired computer user use Linux?

"The answer today is - perhaps", Sajka said. "Anyone who used to like
DOS will like Linux - it is very accessible. You can listen to an audio
file or browse the web from a text command line, not a graphical
interface. It's also very stable - it's nice to compute all day and go
away
and come back and never have to reboot. There is also increased
flexibility - you take what you like and leave the rest.

"I think that if assistive technology were invented today, it would look
only at Linux. This did not happen because when assistive technology
began to be developed, UNIX [the forerunner to Linux] was not free, and
Windows became universally used in business."

Momentum does appear to be building up behind Linux in the access
community. Soon the DAISY digital book standard will be made
compatible with Linux, and next year for the first time there will be a
Linux accessibility track (co-ordinated by Sun) at the annual conference
on 'Technologies and persons with disabilities' at California State
University Northridge, CSUN (
http://www.csun.edu/cod/conf2002).

Ultimately however, the really compelling reason why free software
could be the future for the accessibility community is one of
independence, she said. "With free software, lobbying the IT giants to
make their products accessible becomes irrelevant. We don't need
advocates, we need engineers."

NOTE: For further information on Linux and accessibility, see the
documents section of programmer Saqib Shaikh's web site, which
includes the 'Blinux Software Map', a superb overview of assistive
software available:
http://www.saqibshaikh.com/

See also 'The talking penguin' by programmer John Tucker, at:
http://www.poetsroads.demon.co.uk/sa/talking_computers.html


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