"Accessibility in Fedora Workstation" (fwd)

[blinux-list at redhat.com (Linux for blind general discussion)]

speakup by default installs to a software synthesizer if one is present
like speechdispatcher.


On Fri, 12 Aug 2022, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:

> there are people using Linux in the console daily who deserve equal access.
> Second, this individual's job is to make this platform accessible...which has
> never meant blindness exclusively.
> Further this individual is no volunteer, he is being paid to have up to date
> information, not just about fedora, but for screen readers he did not even
> reference like Fenial <spelling>
> He is a single individual, That he has not seen a hardware synthesizer,  due
> to age does not mean they do not exist.
>  Is he correct that speakup default installs to a hardware synthesizer?
> I cannot imagine that being true given the work on the program.
> What bothers me most are his lack of actual qualifications, and absolute
> dismissal of what he has not experienced..as if he defines Linux usage for
> everyone.
> That attitude is dangerous, because he is educating those outside of the
> accessibility experiences, who will believe his ignorance is factual.
> he has to be expert, it is his job.
>
>
>
> On Fri, 12 Aug 2022, Matt Campbell wrote:
>
> > Hi Karen,
> >
> > I carefully read and fact-checked what Lukas wrote about Speakup. He was
> > incorrect to say that Fedora doesn't include the Speakup kernel module; the
> > stock Fedora kernel has included it for a couple of years now. However,
> > Fedora doesn't include espeakup, speechd-up, or the Speakup user-space tools
> > (e.g. speakupconf and talkwith). I also couldn't find up-to-date
> > documentation on how to use Speakup with Fedora, whether during installation
> > or afterward. Such documentation is readily available for Arch Linux, on the
> > Arch wiki. So practically speaking, his contrast between Speakup support in
> > Fedora and Arch is valid. It also doesn't surprise me that a blind person
> > who started using computers as a teenager in 2009 has never used a hardware
> > speech synthesizer, and it's undeniable that these devices are now rarely
> > used. So I don't believe he said anything that could be considered slander.
> > At worst, his knowledge about the status of Speakup in the Fedora kernel
> > configuration was out-of-date, and I'm inclined to let that go, because we
> > can't all be up-to-date about everything, especially when giving
> > off-the-cuff answers during an interview.
> >
> > More importantly, I see no reason to doubt Lukas's qualifications for the
> > job he was hired for, much less to conclude that he's merely a token blind
> > person. His personal open-source projects are available on his GitHub
> > profile <https://github.com/tyrylu?tab=repositories>. Most notably, his
> > feel-the-streets <https://github.com/tyrylu/feel-the-streets> project is an
> > accessible interface to OpenStreetMap. That project's combination of Python
> > and Rust, and its ability to run on both Windows and Linux, demonstrate the
> > tolerance for complexity that programmers have to have to make progress on
> > non-trivial real-world projects. I would want to hire him if I could. His
> > atspi2_utils <https://github.com/tyrylu/atspi2_utils> repository also
> > demonstrates familiarity with AT-SPI, the protocol that enables GUI
> > accessibility on Linux. So he seems well qualified for this job, and
> > obviously he took the initiative to get the job. I'm excited to see a young
> > blind programmer working full-time on Linux accessibility. He could bring
> > some fresh energy to this space that seemingly hasn't been there for a
> > while. I look forward to finding out what he achieves.
> >
> > Matt
> >
>
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