Softpointer: A Listing of Linux Software for the Blind User from BLINUX-LIST Contents of This File Part 1. Useful Information About Blind Linux Support Part 2. Software Which Enables People Who Are Blind to Run Linux Part 3. Software Which Could Be Modified to Enhance Blind Linux Support Part 4. The HyperText Softpointer. NOTE: all of the utilities and applications referenced in this document is available from the BLINUX FTP Archive: ftp://leb.net/pub/blinux _________________________________________________________________ PART 1: Useful Information About Blind Linux Support ITEM 1.1: Linux Access-HOWTO Author: Michael De La Rue The Linux Access-HOWTO is a very good starting point for everyone dealing with blind support under Linux. The Linux Access HOWTO covers the use of adaptive technology with Linux. In particular, using adaptive technology to make Linux accessible to those who could not use it otherwise. It also covers areas where Linux can be used within more general adaptive technology solutions. The Linux Access-HOWTO file is available in a plain ASCII format from the BLINUX DOCUMENTATION PROJECT's anonymous FTP archive ftp://leb.net in the /pub/blinux/doc subdirectory; in an hypertext version http://leb.net/blinux/accessdoc.html or via email. To receive the Linux Access-HOWTO file via email, send an emessage with the following subject line: archive get access-howto to: blinux-list-request@redhat.com _________________________________________________________________ ITEM 1.2: Emacspeak-HOWTO.txt Author: Jim Van Zandt The Emacspeak HOWTO describes clearly, and in detail, how a blind user can use Linux with a speech synthesizer to replace the video display. Describes how to get Linux running on your own PC, how to set it up for speech output, and provides suggestions on how to learn about Unix. An hypertext version of this file is available at: http://leb.net/blinux/Emacspeak-HOWTO.html A plain text version is stored at ftp://leb.net in the /pub/blinux/doc subdirectory. The revision date of the plain ASCII version of the Emacspeak-HOWTO is 14 December 1997. _________________________________________________________________ ITEM 1.3: The Emacspeak User's Guide: doc/emacspeak.html.gz (41k) Authors: T.V. Raman and Jim Van Zandt The Emacspeak User's Guide is a hypertext manual which describes clearly, and in detail, how Emacspeak works. This file can be read "live" online using the following URL: http://leb.net/blinux/emacspeak.html A plain text version is stored at ftp://leb.net in the /pub/blinux/doc subdirectory. _________________________________________________________________ PART 2: Software Which Enables People Who Are Blind to Run Linux ITEM 2.1: abt320-3.0.bin.tar.gz Jos Lemmens' driver for the Alva Braille Terminal. The abt320 binary is intended for braille terminals with firmware 010495 or later. If you have older firmware please contact Jos Lemmens at . This version includes a screen-reading option which allows you to link your favourite Text-to-Speech software to abt320. (released 14 July 1997) _________________________________________________________________ ITEM 2.2: brltty-1.0.2.tar.gz BRLTTY is a daemon which provides access to a Unix console for a blind person using a soft Braille display BRLTTY. Linux (kernel 1.1.92 or later) running on a PC or DEC Alpha. No X/graphics. Supported Braille displays (serial communication only): + Tieman B.V.: CombiBraille 25/45/85; + Alva B.V.: ABT3xx series; + Telesensory Systems Inc.: PowerBraille 40 (not 65/80), + Navigator 20/40/80 (latest firmware version only?). _________________________________________________________________ ITEM 2.3: Emacspeak 97++ (The Internet PlusPack): emacspeak/blinux/emacspeak.tar.gz (408k) Emacspeak-97++, a.k.a. Emacspeak version 6.0, is a major upgrade of the speech output extension to Emacs. Emacspeak-97++ uses InterActive Accessibility technology (IAA) to provide a powerful, Internet-ready audio desktop, that completely integrates Internet technologies, including Web surfing and messaging, into all aspects of the electronic desktop. The result is complete spoken feedback for a visually impaired user running Emacs. Requires a Dectalk speech synthesizer. Major enhancements in this release include: 1) Support for WWW ACSS (Aural Cascading Style Sheets) 2) Audio formatted output for rich text 3) Enhanced support for browsing tables 4) Support for speaking commonly used ISO Latin characters 5) Speech support for the Emacs widget libraries 6) Support for SGML mode 7) An automatically generated-users manual (thanks to Jim Van Zandt) 8) Support for DISMAL, a powerful spread-sheet application (note: dismal-1.04.tar.gz is available in this archive) and a lot more ... For more information, please consult the Emacspeak home page, URL: http://cs.cornell.edu/home/raman/emacspeak and the Emacspeak-97 release notice, located at: http://cs.cornell.edu/home/raman/emacspeak/release.html _________________________________________________________________ ITEM 2.4: emacspeak/blinux/emacspeak-6.0-2.i386.rpm Jim Van Zandt's RedHat package manager (rpm) for Emacspeak 6.0 (released 27 October 1997). Please address comments to _________________________________________________________________ ITEM 2.5: emacspeak/blinux/emacspeak-bs-0.3.tar.gz Jim Van Zandt's alpha version of an Emacspeak driver for the Braille 'n Speak, Braille Lite, and Type 'n Speak. NOTE: The first version of this driver was labeled 1.1. However, since it is much less mature than the DoubleTalk driver, Jim decided to reset the Braille 'n Speak version number to reflect its immaturity. The only functional change in this version is that frequency and pitch codes are used to simulate multiple voices. (Through an error, the previous version speaks the DECtalk commands to change voices.) In Jim's initial announcement, he noted that when he tested the driver, he found that the computer and the Braille 'n Speak disagreed on the rate of the serial port. He has since learned from the device's manufacturer, Deane Blazie, that some versions do indeed set the serial port for twice the claimed speed. Installing the latest firmware will fix this. In the mean time, you will have to experiment with your device to find the setting that works. The driver will set the computer's serial port to 19200 bits per second. For more detailed information, please consult: http://leb.net/blinux/betas.html#bs Please address comments to _________________________________________________________________ ITEM 2.6: emacspeak/blinux/emacspeak-dt-0.27.tar.gz (46k) Jim Van Zandt's beta version of an Emacspeak driver for the DoubleTalk LT (external), the DoubleTalk PC (internal), the LiteTalk (parallel and serial) synthesizers. Since the LiteTalk crashes when it gets a tone command, the driver now uses the interrogate() results to decide whether tone commands are implemented. (Thanks to Dave Cohen for tracking this down.) The new release also converts some carriage returns to nulls before writing. This eliminates some extra "carriage return"s when punctuation is set to "all". This version also fixes an interface bug. The DoubleTalk documentation states that text is spoken only after a null byte or a carriage return is written to the device. If a Clear command (control-X) is written first, the text is never spoken. It turns out that the same is true of device commands such as the one that sets the punctuation mode. The driver now terminates all device commands with carriage returns, and several things work that did not before. For example, you will get a tone when you cursor down to a blank line. Previous Bug Fixes: 1) with punctuation mode set to "all", the DoubleTalk will speak forward slashes and other characters which were not spoken in earlier releases; 2) rapid typing no longer kills the driver; 3) looks for the special device file in /dev/dtlk; 4) memory leak eliminated; 5) minor code cleanup which should allow some older devices to respond to the -V switch. Known Bugs: 1) Emacspeak is supposed to let you set the punctuation mode to "all", "some" or "none". However, this has no effect with the DoubleTalk PC. This driver was released 27 October 1997 and supports Emacspeak version 6.0 and older. All users of emacspeak-dt versions older than 0.22 should upgrade. This version is much more robust and stable. Please address feedback on this driver to Jim Van Zandt _________________________________________________________________ ITEM 2.6.1: emacspeak/blinux/emacspeak-dt-0.27-1.i386.rpm RedHat Package Manager for Jim Van Zandt's DoubleTalk/LiteTalk driver for Emacspeak. (released 27 October 1997) _________________________________________________________________ ITEM 2.6.2: emacspeak/blinux/emacspeak-dt_0.26-1_i386.deb Jim Van Zandt's Debian package manager for his DoubleTalk/LiteTalk driver for Emacspeak. (released 27 October 1997) _________________________________________________________________ ITEM 2.7: emacspeak/blinux/dtlk-1.12.tar.gz (37k) Linux device driver for the DoubleTalk PC (a.k.a. the internal DoubleTalk) for use with Emacspeak. This driver is written as a "module", which means it is linked into the running kernel by insmod. Therefore, you do not need to recompile the kernel in order to use the DoubleTalk driver. FEATURES: Includes a script (/usr/local/sbin/dtlk-install) to install the module and create the special device file. Automatic configuration using GNU autoconf. Manual pages for the device file and installer. Known Bugs: Emacspeak is supposed to let you set the punctuation mode to "all", "some" or "none". However, this has no effect with the DoubleTalk PC. Please address questions and/or comments to the author, Jim Van Zandt (released 5 October 1997) _________________________________________________________________ ITEM 2.8: emacspeak/blinux/d-exp-1.9.tar.gz (38k) Emacspeak driver for the DECtalk Express. Written in C, it is a drop-in replacement for the TCL interface supplied by Emacspeak author T.V. Raman and is made available under the GNU copyleft. (Note: This driver works with Emacspeak 6.0 and older) Released 9 August 1997. CHANGES/FIXES: Fixed bad buffer handling and handshaking. Eliminated a memory leak. Log file names changed. Accepts both old and new Emacspeak commands. Accepts multiline commands. Switch -V speaks program version number. NOTE: All users of any previous version of d-exp should upgrade. This driver is much more stable. Please address feedback on this driver to Jim Van Zandt _________________________________________________________________ ITEM 2.9: morse-1.5.tar.gz morse reads text from standard input and transmits corresponding Morse code via the PC speaker. The author, Jim Van Zandt writes: "Although I have spent some time trying to generate good Morse code, this is hardly a general purpose output mechanism. In particular, it will not work with Emacspeak (yet). For now, I hope that it can serve in the same kind of niche as is usual for Morse code: when nothing else works. "Here are couple of examples. One string can be supplied on the command line: morse -s "hello world" "You can add an audible component to bash's prompt (here, the letter r) like this: PS1="`morse -s r`$ " Here are some more details: + If standard input becomes readable again before transmission is finished, the buffer is flushed and the new text is transmitted instead. + The default transmission rate is 12 words per minute. Character timing is determined by the Manchester technique. At rates of 22 wpm and faster, the standard ratio of 1:1:3:3:7 is maintained among the lengths of the dot, intracharacter pause, dash, intercharacter pause, and interword pause. At rates slower than 22 wpm, the individual characters are transmitted at the 22 wpm rate, but the intercharacter and interword pauses are stretched. In other words, the above times are in the ratio 1:1:3:3x:7x. + The default audio frequency is 880 Hz (A above middle C). Special characters are spelled out, at a somewhat lower frequency. + My machine seems to transmit okay at 45 wpm, but fails entirely at 60 wpm (the tones run together, or something). There is also several milliseconds of jitter which may limit the effective rate even more. I cannot copy code nearly fast enough to test it well myself. Your machine may differ, and kernels may differ too. (I've been testing using a 2.0.29 kernel.) "I am interested in feedback as always. In particular: 1. Where I could not find a Morse code for a special character, the program spells out the name of the character, at a lower audio frequency. I would appreciate codes for more characters, if someone can provide them. Should the present method be retained? Which method should be the default? 2. The audio frequency is raised for upper case characters. Is this helpful, or confusing? Should this be the default? 3. Would you prefer a different audio frequency by default? 4. I don't suppose any two people will be satisfied with the default transmission rate. If enough people submit votes, I suppose I could set the default to the median of the values suggested. _________________________________________________________________ ITEM 2.10: nfbtr748.zip (200k) A high quality Grade 2 braille translation program. Performs both back- and forwards-translation) Does not support braille graphics and cannot translate WordPerfect files unless they are converted to ascii first. Supported platforms: MSDOS, Unix. (released February 6, 1997) _________________________________________________________________ ITEM 2.10.1: Foreign Language Tables for NFBTR: tables2.zip (17k) New foreign language tables for nfbtr748.zip, the free Grade 2 Braille translator. A summary of the new tables follows: + ICELAND.TAB: An Icelandic table compiled in collaboration with the Icelandic Library for the Blind in Reykjavik. This is a great improvement over their previous computer-assisted situation. + DANISH.TAB: the contracted form of Braille (standard form) revised by the Danish Braille Commission, which took effect on January 1, 1993. + SWEDISH.TAB: the updated contraction system, punctuation and specialized signs developed by the Swedish Braille Commission, which took effect on January 1, 1989. The table reflects these changes and includes the contractions. + NORWEG.TAB: uses the contractions and guidelines established by the Huseby Training Center for the Visually Impaired in Oslo, Norway in 1979. + DUTCH.TAB and DUTCH3.TAB: Currently, the standard for Dutch used by the Nederlandse Luisteren Braille-Bibliotheek (NLBB) is an uncontracted form. However, contracted Grade 3 Dutch Braille is widely used throughout Holland and Belgium. + SPANISH2.TAB: Grado Dos (Grade 2) Spanish Braille system from O.N.C.E. in Madrid. There is also consensus in using this Grade 2 system among the Hispanic-American Braille reading communities, although most publications in Central and South America are still using a Grade 1 Braille, due to educational limitations of their readers. _________________________________________________________________ ITEM 2.11: saytime.tar.Z A program that says the current time on /dev/audio. There is a C program and a sh shell script. The official distribution site for saytime.tgz is ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/sound/speech _________________________________________________________________ ITEM 2.12: Screader: screader-1.3.bin.tar.gz Screader is Jos Lemmens' new screen reader for Linux 1.1.92+, which uses a software Text-To-Speech package. It reads the screen information from the device /dev/vcsa0 and puts it through to a TTS. The file /opt/etc/abt320/tts contains the name(s) of the TTS to be used by screader. This program is a modification of the 'screen' package. Future releases will be independent of 'screen'. At that time it will be possible to read the screen from every vertual console. Currently, screader will only work on the current virtual console. If you want to use screader on another virtual console you have to run screader again on that console. Please address any feedback to the author, Jos Lemmens _________________________________________________________________ ITEM 2.13: W3-Access for Blind People: W3blinds1.0.tar.gz W3-Access for Blind People' is intended to make web-surfing easier for blind people. Structure information in HTML documents is transformed on the fly into a form, that can be read easier by visually handicapped. We assume that the blind computer user is already familiar with a screen reader and already working with a W3-browser. Our approach works with every W3-browser and every screen reader. No additional software has to be installed at the user's end. The lastest version of W3-Access for Blind People is always available from http://www.inf.ethz.ch/department/IS/ea/blinds _________________________________________________________________ ITEM 2.14: Speaking xmailbox: xmailbox-2.4mod.tar.gz (42k) ---------------------- A modified xmailbox program, written by Mihai Manolescu , which is able to speak the From: and Subject: fields from incoming mail. To run Speaking xmailbox, you need: * the patched xmailbox source * a python interpreter, available from ftp://ftp.python.org/pub/python/src * a piece of hardware which will generate the speech * speech synthesis software (speaking xmailbox was created using rsynth-2.0 on a linux box; rsynth-2.0.tgz is available at ftp://leb.net/pub/blinux/) Everything is platform/system independent, so if your *NIX machine has audio capabilities you should be lucky enough to find a speech synthesis program and start this xmailbox. The latest information about xmailbox can always be found at: http://bip.golana.pub.ro/~mmihai/xmb/ _________________________________________________________________ ITEM 2.15: xmb+say-linux.tar.gz (70k) Binary distribution of the xmailbox, say, and ugotmail programs. You need a python interpreter to run these programs. _________________________________________________________________ PART 3: Software Which Could Be Modified to Enhance Blind Linux Support ITEM 3.1: AbbotDemo-0.6-Linux.tar.gz A speaker independent continuous speech recognition system. AbbotDemo is also available from: ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/sound/speech/ or http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/sound/speech/ _________________________________________________________________ ITEM 3.2: "Easy Automatic Recognition of Speech": ears-0.32.tar.gz The EARS package is intended as a limited ready-to-use single word recognizer for Linux systems. However, its design already aims at being a host for all kinds of methods used in speech recognition (SR). The EARS package is also available from: * ftp://svr-ftp.eng.cam.ac.uk/pub/comp.speech/recognition * ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/sound/speech * http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/sound/speech or from the EARS homepage, located at * http://www.tmt.de/~stephan/ears.html from which the latest version of EARS, as well as the source code for the product, can be downloaded. _________________________________________________________________ ITEM 3.3: OggSQUISH 0.97 OggSQUISH is a general purpose compressed, digitized audio storage format. It is designed to be faster, more flexible and higher quality than the now ubiquitous MPEG, as well as surpass the functionality and durability of upcoming next-generation compressed audio formats such as AT&T's PAC and NTT's TwinVQ. More information about OggSQUISH 0.97 is available at http://deskfish.cs.titech.ac.jp:8001/squish where one can also download the Full Ogg/Libogg source as a tarred-gzipped file or a pkzipped file _________________________________________________________________ ITEM 3.4: ogi-speech.tar.gz Speech data manipulation research tools: signal manipulation, phonetic, phonemic and word analysis has the capability to build audio databases which can be used to train neural networks with a NN trainer in the package. ogi-speech.tar.gz is also available from: ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/sound/speech/ or http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/sound/speech/ _________________________________________________________________ ITEM 3.5: rsynth-2.0.tgz A text to speech system produced by integrating various pieces of code and tables of data. rsynth-2.0.tgz is also available from: ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/sound/speech http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/sound/speech and ftp://svr-ftp.eng.cam.ac.uk/pub/comp.speech/synthesis _________________________________________________________________ ITEM 3.6: "Speak library and talking program:" speak-1.0.tar.gz A library that can convert English text into spoken words using a sound card under Linux. ".au" files for all phonemes are supplied. A program is included that can "read files". This file is also available from: ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/sound/speech/ or http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/sound/speech/ _________________________________________________________________ PART 4: The Hypertext Softpointer You can use the hypertext version of this file to download these programs directly. The URL for the hypertext version of the Softpointer File is: http://leb.net/blinux/softpointer.html _________________________________________________________________ last modified December 30, 1997 URL of this document: ftp://leb.net/pub/blinux/softpointer.txt