At first glance, this post might seem completely irrelevant to this list 
or to blindness computer user groups.  However, one of the items that 
the document Foundation mentions is accessibility, which appears as the 
fifth item on their list of topics.  I've been doing a lot of testing 
with TDF's LibreOffice suite with the current crop of Windows screen 
readers, including Window-eyes, JAWS and NVDA. Sorry, I haven't tested 
it with Mac's voiceover yet but I plan to do so shortly.
for those who aren't familiar with this package, LibreOffice is a free, 
open-source office suite, based on the code of OpenOffice. It's produced 
by the Document foundation and you can learn more about it, as well as 
download it, at
www.libreoffice.org
It uses a classic, old-school menu bar and TDF is slowly implementing 
accessibility, as is apache with OpenOffice.  I don't feel that this 
program is quite ready for prime-time use by blind computer users at 
this time, but I think the day is coming when any blind person will have 
a free and accessible alternative to Microsoft Office with accessibility 
with their particular screen reader of choice.  Btw, I have nothing 
against Microsoft Office. It's a capable and powerful collection of 
programs and many of the suite's packages work amazingly well with 
today's screen readers. Of course, Office 2010 or 2013 users get the 
added benefit of being able to use GW Micro's window-eyes screen reader 
at no cost. However, not all computers ship with Office installed and 
for some consumers it's an added and, for some, an inconvenient 
expense.  You can read more about how to submit your info for a talk at
http://blog.documentfoundation.org/2014/03/05/libreoffice-conference-2014-call-for-paper/
Unlike Microsoft Office, LibreOffice receives regular updates and users 
can submit bugs into TDF's bug tracking system.

-- 
Feel free to visit my LinkedIn profile at
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/david-goldfield/12/929/573

         David Goldfield,
        Founder and Peer Coordinator

    Philadelphia Computer Users' Group for the Blind and Visually Impaired


    VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
Archived on the World Wide Web at
    http://listserv.icors.org/archives/vicug-l.html
    Signoff: [log in to unmask]
    Subscribe: [log in to unmask]