[misc.handicap] Blinknet? mailing list

kirk@braille.uwo.ca (Kirk Reiser) (04/25/91)

Index Number: 15211

I have been involed for years with various mailing lists.  I have also
been involved with software and hardware development for the visually
impaired community.  It has also seemed to me a good way to produce more
packages for that community, would be through group participation.
Unfortunately, I have never found any project based mailing list for
visually impaired people.  So I guess if I think it would be a good
idea, and no one else seems to be doing it, then maybe it was about time
I did it.

The reasons for organizing a mailing list to discuss issues and software
development are numerous and varied.  For instance, should products be
developed exclusively for the visually impaired?  If not, how can
commercial software developers be convinced to consider the handicapped
community when doing their product development?  If so, what are correct
ways of developing software which will work with speech, braille and
screen enlargement programs?  Should packages being developed for the
blind community also target the non-handicapped world.  These are
philosophical discussions which need more exercise.

The world which is becoming more electronic, is also embedding itself
more deeply in paper.  I have become some what of a collector of
electronic information, where to locate it and where to look for more.
Increasingly I find the materials being stored in machine accessible
form are in postscript or DVI formats.  So if we want to keep up with
the data being stored electronically we need to see development of
utilities like postscript and DVI to ASCII conversion tools.

Access technology product development is an area where much is being
done, and massive work needs to be done.  Products for the handicapped
community have been very expensive and sparse for years.  As a group we
may be able to develop packages which are less expensive, in some cases
free, and more powerful.  A good example of this type of cooperative
effort is the GNU project.  Richard Stallman and the Free Software
Foundation have collected programmers together who are dedicated to
making software available for free.  In a matter of a few years FSF has
put together packages of software which are world renowned for power and
efficiency in the UNIX community.

Well I could blubber on about this type of thing for hours.  If you are
interested in becoming involved with a mailing list to discuss these
issues, and ultimately design and develop packages, send e-mail to me at
either the address below or above.  Send your e-mail address and if you
are on fidonet or have been known to be difficult to get too, send your
best guess for mail routing.  Also let me know what you are interested
in, how you see yourself being involved and some background information.

The first issue might be what will we call the mailing list or lists?
My first choice is the subject line above.  However, I realize some
folks may be offended by it and I don't want to scare potential team
members off because of a name.  So if you have pet names for a list like
this send them along with your arguments.  If you have a list of needed
products or projects you've been wishing about for years, send them
along as well.

  Kirk
-- 
Kirk Reiser				The Computer Braille Facility
email:   kirk@braille.uwo.ca		room H045 Health Sciences Addition
phone: (519) 661-3061			University of Western Ontario
					London Ontario N6A 5C1

[Note from Bill Mcgarry: In further correspondance with Kirk, he
added the following:]

My idea for a mailing list, is really not meant to be a general reading
list.  My main goal is to set up a network of blind folks, mostly programmers,
to start working on a few joint software projects.  I don't think the
majority of blind readers will be interested in seeing project specs,
flow charts, and code bits floating back and forth.  Obviously the end 
result is an experiment in a gnu style group dedicated to software 
development for our community.  If you believe this is something the
gerenal blind population is interested in, then we could use the mailing
lists you have mentioned.  My experience in the past has been every time
a generally oriented group start to get very specific, The readers start
to complain about there being too much specific dribble.

Please let me know your thoughts about these things.  I am really not
interested in starting a list for ego.  But I would seriously like to
work twoard readily available good! software for the blind community.

  Kirk