4 ms·

I hope you see this, because 1st-hand-experience. My brother is blind. He has been using JAWS for over a decade. I love OSS, and I know many distros have scre

by knob 11y ago

I hope you see this, because 1st-hand-experience. My brother is blind. He has been using JAWS for over a decade. I love OSS, and I know many distros have screen readers. Yet JAWS is just out there ahead. If she finds it too complicated: try and simplify things. Remove unneeded icons and menus. Customize her shortcuts. Install TeamViewer (if she is remote). Keep helping her man. The internet, for my brother, is a place where his limitations are minimized. Yet to have the world open up in front of you, is all worth it. My brother (just as me), speak spanish. He uses JAWS still the same, although the bulk is in english. Let me know if I can help you in any way. PS: If anybody can point me in a direction to help OSS screen reader software, please do let me know. Would love to contribute back.

chrmaury 11y ago
NVAccess.org manages the NVDA screenreader which is free and open source. It's what I rely on to use a computer. It's also stealing massive market share from JAWS.
dbbolton 11y ago
Debian has some decent accessibility resources: https://wiki.debian.org/accessibility https://wiki.debian.org/accessibility https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-accessibility/software https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-accessibility/software ORCA is probably the strongest FOSS competitor of JAWS: https://wiki.debian.org/Orca https://wiki.debian.org/Orca https://help.gnome.org/users/orca/stable/ https://help.gnome.org/users/orca/stable/ I don't know whether Debian would be the best choice for OP or not. In my experience, I wouldn't install any new OS for someone unless you are willing and available to help the person until they get the hang of it. My parents have been using Linux (formerly Debian and now Mint) for over a decade after they got fed up with Windows. I still have to help them from time to time, but I think that would also be the case with Windows, except I would be trying to remove malware instead of showing them how to burn a DVD or what have you.
- brudgers 11y ago
  Malware has not been much of an issue since about the time Vista rolled out. The new model is pretty good and the free Microsoft Security Essentials fills in for 3rd party crapware antivirus packages. That's not to say that downloading 3rd party applications for Windows doesn't scare me much more than sudo apt-get install...the OS's just invoke different levels of trust in me. Anyway, XP was the last truly vulnerable version of Windows and thankfully it's been laid to rest.
  - dbbolton 11y ago
    It's more of a PEBKAC scenario. I'm not saying modern Windows isn't secure per se, but they are far less likely to install something they don't want on Mint (perhaps I should have said crapware or bloatware instead), such as questionable toolbars and other "bundled" software.
  - tl 11y ago
    As someone who has had to clean an infested Windows 7 machine, I disagree; there is no limit on what users can be convinced to install.
    - psykovsky 11y ago
      There is no anti-virus against human stupidity.
  - psykovsky 11y ago
    The Microsoft Security Essentials bit would be very true if they didn't end up installing other crapware AV's on top of it, which happens more often than not, at least on the Windows computers I get my hands on. And even using more than one AV they still manage to get their browsers hijacked, etc.

by knob 11y ago

chrmaury 11y ago

NVAccess.org manages the NVDA screenreader which is free and open source. It's what I rely on to use a computer. It's also stealing massive market share from JAWS.

dbbolton 11y ago

Debian has some decent accessibility resources: https://wiki.debian.org/accessibility https://wiki.debian.org/accessibility https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-accessibility/software https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-accessibility/software ORCA is probably the strongest FOSS competitor of JAWS: https://wiki.debian.org/Orca https://wiki.debian.org/Orca https://help.gnome.org/users/orca/stable/ https://help.gnome.org/users/orca/stable/ I don't know whether Debian would be the best choice for OP or not. In my experience, I wouldn't install any new OS for someone unless you are willing and available to help the person until they get the hang of it. My parents have been using Linux (formerly Debian and now Mint) for over a decade after they got fed up with Windows. I still have to help them from time to time, but I think that would also be the case with Windows, except I would be trying to remove malware instead of showing them how to burn a DVD or what have you.

brudgers 11y ago
Malware has not been much of an issue since about the time Vista rolled out. The new model is pretty good and the free Microsoft Security Essentials fills in for 3rd party crapware antivirus packages. That's not to say that downloading 3rd party applications for Windows doesn't scare me much more than sudo apt-get install...the OS's just invoke different levels of trust in me. Anyway, XP was the last truly vulnerable version of Windows and thankfully it's been laid to rest.
- dbbolton 11y ago
  It's more of a PEBKAC scenario. I'm not saying modern Windows isn't secure per se, but they are far less likely to install something they don't want on Mint (perhaps I should have said crapware or bloatware instead), such as questionable toolbars and other "bundled" software.
- tl 11y ago
  As someone who has had to clean an infested Windows 7 machine, I disagree; there is no limit on what users can be convinced to install.
  - psykovsky 11y ago
    There is no anti-virus against human stupidity.
- psykovsky 11y ago
  The Microsoft Security Essentials bit would be very true if they didn't end up installing other crapware AV's on top of it, which happens more often than not, at least on the Windows computers I get my hands on. And even using more than one AV they still manage to get their browsers hijacked, etc.