Assistive Technologies in Linux

This KB article is currently a place-holder. It is meant to be populated with information regarding setting up the assistive functions in Linux (larger mouse pointers, text-to-voice/screen readers, screen magnification for partially sighted, etc). Setup recipes should/could be classified under desktop environment or even distribution-specific headings where applicable.

Please feel free to add/edit/delete to this article as needed!

Note to admins: This article is now in the "Other" category, would it perhaps be a good idea to create a specific category for assistive technologies? - JH

A couple of good places to start looking for information are these resources:

My Computer My Way from AbilityNet - includes advise for Linux, Mac and windows.

My Web My Way from BBC mostly covers use of web browsers,

As a partial Dyslexic [about 6 on the scale up to 10] I have played about with several Text-to-Speech apps. When researching the Adapted PC topic a few years ago for close family members, I came across these resouces.  AbilityNet.org is a great starting place if you have severe needs that could be significantly helped by adapting your PC. In a KDE environment I have used KTTS and KSayIt. In Windows I typically used an app named PleaseRead. Both these apps gave good quality speech, comparable to what you might expect with TomTom satnav,  but with a few amusing anomalies. The best test my kids came up with was getting the app to pronounce the word "Dyslexia". My wife [a Voice + Drama Coach] would then give it the once over to check against typical US/UK pronounciation patterns. I havn't explored the options in Gnome, but I am lead to believe they exist. I know someone at Uni that has an adapted Mac, I could make enquiries about their preferences. BillWolfe.