Thread: About Windows 11's high system requirements. You know, a lot of blind people, who don't have jobs, live on social security and disability money, and who definitely don't have the newest computers, won't get Windows 11. This could have been a great chance for Linux to step up and say loud and proud "Because we support every person's ability to choose their system, and use and learn about computers, we will never force upon users what system they must run. And because we stand proudly with people with disabilities, all blind people are welcome in the world of free and open source software, where they can learn and create just like everyone else." But no. Gnome, one of the most popular desktops on Linux, is trash with accessibility. KDE is working on it, but that'll take years. Who's ever heard of Mate? And who makes current software for the command line, for users and not other developers?
As a non-blind person, I wonder why blind people even use a GUI? Isn’t that kind of useless for them? Wouldn’t a terminal-first interface (which is actually well supported under Linux) be much better anyways?
probably not, imagine how it feels to just hear the output of “ls”. where every special character like underscores and such are spelled out. it probably works, but: a) i think its harder to grasp the bigger picture b) it is harder to for instance “jump” around. imagine visually jumping to the first directory that starts with “h” and then jumping to the word “heart” or something.
when you can see with your eyes you can see both in a precise and not-so-precise mode basically. The not so precise reading is for instance looking for specific patterns or something. but listening to some output is always precise. it is harder to ignore stuff which you don’t need
There are many kinds of blind. You could have 95% reduced eyesight and make out windows and maybe blobs of colour but not be able to read anything. If you’re 100% blind, you can still rely on mouse movements instead of doing everything with a keyboard.
Tommy Edison, who has been blind since birth, shows how he uses the computer to send an email. The MacBookPro has an Accessibility preference called Voice Over which reads the screen to him.
As a non-blind person, I wonder why blind people even use a GUI? Isn’t that kind of useless for them? Wouldn’t a terminal-first interface (which is actually well supported under Linux) be much better anyways?
probably not, imagine how it feels to just hear the output of “ls”. where every special character like underscores and such are spelled out. it probably works, but: a) i think its harder to grasp the bigger picture b) it is harder to for instance “jump” around. imagine visually jumping to the first directory that starts with “h” and then jumping to the word “heart” or something.
when you can see with your eyes you can see both in a precise and not-so-precise mode basically. The not so precise reading is for instance looking for specific patterns or something. but listening to some output is always precise. it is harder to ignore stuff which you don’t need
You are right, I somehow assumed blind persons would primarily use something like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refreshable_braille_display
But in fact is seems text to speech audio interfaces are also common as explained here: https://accessibe.com/blog/knowledgebase/what-are-screen-readers-and-how-they-enable-blind-people-to-surf-the-internet
There are many kinds of blind. You could have 95% reduced eyesight and make out windows and maybe blobs of colour but not be able to read anything. If you’re 100% blind, you can still rely on mouse movements instead of doing everything with a keyboard.
True, but it still seems to be rather counter-productive to use a GUI then. But I obviously don’t know :)
Here’s a small report by a blind person using a MBP: How A Blind Person Uses A Computer – The Tommy Edison Experience