[nfbcs] Helping a software engineer keep his job

[Jim Barbour]

Hey Gary,

I'm sure several of us, including me, would be happy to talk with him.

Frankly, the best bang for the buck is to use a windows terminal
emulator to ssh into his linux machine to do work.

When he says this isn't efficient, I wonder if he means because he's
used to using GUI tools and is having a hard time switching to a pure
command line environment; or if he is having a hard time building
fluency with JAWS.

Both will take dedicated practice and struggle to gain real
perficiency.  I do not recommend native linux screen reading
technologies such as orca for new AT users.  They're flakey and
somewhat frustrating to use at their best.

There are some terminal based screen readers that run natively on
Linux that he may be happy with.  Two of the more popular ones are
yasr (yet another screen reader) and SpeakUp.

Finally, there's this idea of blindness focused LInux distributions,
such as vinux.  These are not as interesting or promising as they
sound.  They're a way to bring a lot of AT into one place.  I might
suggest this for a seasoned linux user who is also a seasoned AT user
who wants a quick and dirty platform to test out various AT.

I hope this helps,

Jim

On Fri, Oct 17, 2014 at 10:47:55AM -0500, Gary Wunder via nfbcs wrote:
> Several days ago I was contacted by a software engineer who is going blind.
> He uses the Linux operating system, and what he really needs is a way to
> efficiently do the things that are required of him as a programmer for
> Lockheed Martin. His employer seems to be willing to get him any equipment
> that might help him in his job, so they have gotten him Zoom text, the
> K1000, and I think they have even purchased several copies of JAWS for
> Windows for him to use on several computers. Of course all of these are
> based on Microsoft Windows, and what he really needs to interact with is a
> Linux box. He has figured out a way to do some terminal emulation that lets
> him use screen reading technology, but all of the workarounds really make it
> difficult for him to do what once was efficient.
> 
>  
> 
> Do any of you have ideas about how to help him? My impression is that he is
> smart, motivated, well regarded by his employer, but at his wits in as to
> how to do his job and to meet the deadlines that are being offered. He is
> monitoring this list and will appreciate any comments that people care to
> give. I will be monitoring the list, but I will be on vacation and rather
> out of touch for the next ten days or so. I thank all of you for thinking
> about this and giving him your best ideas. His name is Graham Mehl.
> 
>  
> 
> Warmly,
> 
>  
> 
> Gary
> 
> Linix operating system
> 
> _______________________________________________
> nfbcs mailing list
> nfbcs at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbcs_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nfbcs:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbcs_nfbnet.org/jbar%40barcore.com
>