[nfbcs] Helping a software engineer keep his job

[John G. Heim]

I am not sure the best bang for the buck ist o use Windows 
terminal emulator. My opinion is that once the learning curve has been overcome, the most efficient way to work with linux servers is with a linux workstation. Obviously, for a sighted person, there’s be no question about that. The reason it might not be true for a blind sys admin is that the screen readers for Windows are so much better than the one for linux, orca. Even so, I think that’s a tough call. 

In this thread, people have talked about how hard it is to use a character based text editor like vi or emacs with a screen reader. I don’t do that. I use an sshfs client to attach a network file system and edit files with edit on my workstation. Another advantage is that the terminal emulator program in gnome works great with orca. 

On Oct 17, 2014, at 11:39 AM, Jim Barbour via nfbcs <nfbcs at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> 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
>> 
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> 
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