[gui-talk] Fwd: ANNOUNCE: Linux Screen Reader 0.3.0

[David Andrews]

>
>==============
>* What is it ?
>==============
>
>The Linux Screen Reader (LSR) project is an open source effort to
>develop an extensible assistive technology for the GNOME desktop
>environment. The goal of the project is to create a reusable
>development platform for building alternative and supplemental user
>interfaces in support of people with diverse disabilities.
>
>The primary use of the LSR platform is to give people with visual impairments
>access to the GNOME desktop and its business applications (e.g. Firefox,
>OpenOffice, Eclipse) using speech, Braille, and screen magnification. The
>extensions packaged with the LSR core are intended to meet this end. However,
>LSR's rich support for extensions can be used for a variety of other purposes
>such as supporting novel input and output devices, improving accessibility for
>users with other disabilities, enabling multi-modal access to the GNOME
>desktop, and so forth.
>
>==================
>* What's changed ?
>==================
>
>A demonstration of LSR 0.3.0 will be presented at the GNOME Accessibility
>Summit. A screencast of the demo will be posted on the LSR homepage
>shortly thereafter. The demo will showcase the latest screen reading
>features of LSR
>as well as two prototype interfaces for people with cognitive decline and
>reading disabilities.
>
>For users
>
>* The new settings dialog allows for configuration of settings defined by a
>   particular device or script as well as the current user profile. For
>   instance, a user can change their speech synthesizer without 
> restarting LSR.
>* Settings are now persistent across sessions. More settings will be added
>   in future versions.
>* New keyboard commands are now available such as reading accessible
>   descriptions, reporting text attributes, routing focus and caret, etc. See
>   the list of defined commands at
>* The LSR review keys now function on web pages in Firefox 3.0. The 
>FirefoxPerk
>   will grow new commands for rich document navigation in future releases.
>* The Perk chooser dialog allows users to manually load and unload scripts for
>   the current application. This allows users to dynamically load/unload tool
>   scripts at runtime, kind of like Emacs modes.
>* DECtalk is now supported through gnome-speech.
>* SpeechDispatcher is now supported.
>* A script to better support accessible login has been added. Instructions for
>   configuring Fedora Core to start LSR at login are now available in the LSR
>   FAQ. (http://live.gnome.org/LSR/FrequentlyAskedQuestions)
>
>For developers
>
>* The developer scripting API has grown a tremendous number of new convenience
>   methods. See the epydoc on the LSR homepage for details.
>* Three developer monitors now exist in LSR for watching raw accessibility
>   events from at-spi, execution of LSR scripts, and I/O streams to devices.
>* User configurable settings may now be defined by LSR scripts. The settings
>   dialog automatically generates an accessible user interface for changing
>   their values.
>* Developers can now add new dialogs and debugging monitors to LSR 
>just as they
>   can add scripts and input/output devices. They're all just 
> extensions to LSR.
>* The command line interface for managing extensions is now simpler.
>* Extensions may now be added by the root user and made available system-wide,
>   or added by an unprivileged user and available for his/her use only.
>* The spec is updated to support the building of relocatable RPMs.
>
>Translations
>
>* en_GB(David Lodge)
>* vi(Clytie Siddall)
>* zh_CN(Funda Wang)
>* pt_BR(Raphael Higino)
>* sv(Daniel Nylander)
>
>For full details, please see the ChangeLog at
>http://cvs.gnome.org/viewcvs/lsr/ChangeLog?rev=1.29.
>
>For an idea of where LSR is headed next, visit
>http://live.gnome.org/LSR/Timeline
>
>======================
>* Where can I get it ?
>======================
>
>Source code release and contributed packages:
>http://live.gnome.org/LSR#downloads
>
>For more information, visit the LSR home page:
>http://live.gnome.org/LSR
>_______________________________________________
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>gnome-accessibility-list at gnome.org
>http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-accessibility-list

David Andrews and white cane Harry.