[vox-outreach] New Sacramento Linux user

[Jimbo]

I would be honored if I can help this man out however I am very green to 
Linux.  I do have compassion and can get the ball rolling as far getting 
things done.  I just wish that this message came just before the last 
installfest.

If someone is reading this please help me help this man.  I can muddle 
through but as far as handicap software I havent a clue and besides, there 
are soo many members that know so much more about linux than I do.

I can do legwork, transport and put in some hours. I have a car and can pick 
up anybody anywhere that has linux experience.

Henrik, if you are reading this, please know that I will help.

Jim

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Henrik Nilsen Omma" <henrik at ubuntu.com>
To: <lug-nuts at saclug.org>
Cc: <vox-outreach at lists.lugod.org>
Sent: Friday, February 23, 2007 11:44 AM
Subject: [vox-outreach] New Sacramento Linux user


> Hi,
>
> I'm the accessibility lead at Ubuntu. I'm contacting SacLUG with what may 
> seem an odd request. We were recently contacted by a 72 year old computer 
> enthusiast from Sacramento who has been trying for several years to 
> migrate from Windows to Linux, trying various distros.
>
> His case is made more complicated by the fact that he is nearly blind (5% 
> vision in one eye, he says). On windows he relies on special 
> text-to-speech and magnification software. Such tools are becoming 
> available on Linux too, but they are not always trivial to set up. If you 
> have no previous knowledge of Linux and poor vision, you can imagine that 
> it gets complicated.
>
> The good news it that he seems generally quite tech-savvy and is very 
> determined. I spoke with him on the phone at some length yesterday. What 
> he really needs IMO is to meet someone locally who can just show him some 
> of the options available to him and help him install them.
>
> I would recommend the Orca screen reader and the espeak voice engine, 
> which are both developing nicely. Finally he should try the zoom function 
> with inverse colours in Beryl, which would serve his magnification needs 
> very well IMO, though it can be non-trivial to install and is still a bit 
> buggy.
>
> I would go see him myself if we were even on the same continent, but I'm 
> in Oslo, Norway ATM :) He says he had trouble finding contact information 
> on you website (I found it easily enough, but this illustrates the 
> challenges he faces).
>
> I've had some contact with people from LUGOD in connection with Software 
> Freedom Day, so I know there are dedicated evangelists in the Sacramento 
> area :)
>
> Henrik
>
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