Re: [suse-blinux] Accessibility removed

10 May 2005

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Hi Don.  Nobody in my area that I'm aware of uses SUSE at all.  When I said it
had been removed, I meant that it has been removed from the kernels.  So it no
longer comes up at boot time.  From our point of view, this means I don't have
a prayer of installing it, All the people I have spoken too on the subject, one
of whom is a blind LINUX programmer, responsible for authoring the Supercast
audio streaming server, tell me to ditch SUSE and go back to Fedora, for which
there is a talking installation available.  In fact, one of them has even gone
so far as to kindly upload the images of the CD's to me.  So at this point it
looks like I'll reluctantly have to go that route.  I need to get this project
off the ground, to be honest.  I don't have the time to spend hunting for stuff
within SUSE.  I just feel saddened that I'm coming up against a brick wall with
SUSE every which way I turn.  I want to thank you for your efforts to help
here.  I'm still very much interested if someone could come up with something
to help.  But the only way I could do anything with this OS would be if there
is some kind of accessibility by default.  Novell, in their infinite wisdom,
have removed this.  Thus effectively precluding the accessibility users from
their product.  It's all very well their talking about all the accessibility
products which SUSE supports.  But they don't make it possible for a visually
impaired user to install the operating system without third-party help.  I was
planning on doing a review of SUSE for a radio station run by the American
Council Of The Blind, for which I do voluntary work.  However, my review will
now have to be just a few lines in length.  It will read something like:
Good product, potentially anyway.  However, accessibility by default is 0 and,
as such, this LINUX distribution isn't one I can recommend.
What a shame that Novell got their hands on what used to be an excellently well
laid out operating system.

At 19:12 09/05/2005 -0700, don gentner said:

Hi Gordon,  I have some good news. I called Novell and
   was able to talk to one of Novell's Linux Tech's and
he helped me check out Suse 9.3 Professional from
there Web site and we found that blinux is still a
package
in Suse 9.3.

They have not removed it.

Blinux is a package in there Hardware Package Group of
Packages and called SBL. The package is not installed
by default but is on the Suse 9.3 CD's and DVD's and
can be installed by Yast.

I went to one of my Suse computers and started up Yast
and went to Software and then Install Software and
then did a search in Hardware Package Groups for SBL
and there it is. You can check the box and then Yast
will
ask for the Suse CD or DVD and it will install the
package.

Now I know this is not going to be easy for you
because you can't point and click your way through all
of this as I was able to. But the blinux Package is
still in Suse and I think its an upgraded program
because its SBL 2.2 .

The bad news is that Novell doesn't offer support for
blinux so you can't call a Novell tech for help.
You will have to get help from someone who has
installed and worked with this package or from a Linux
users group that can help you find someone with help.

I konw this is not going to be easy but there is hope
that with the right kind of help that it is possible.

Now that we know that it's in 9.3, I will try to help
you find someone who has experience with configuring
it. It would be great if you could find someone close
to you who could help you install the SBL Package and
then see what happens after you install and re-boot.

I will see if anyone in a Linux users group around
here has any experience with blimux.

Re: [suse-blinux] Accessibility removed

Gordon Smith