| SUSE LINUX Documentation Chapter 8. The GNOME Desktop / 8.4. Assistive Technology Support | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 8.3. Important Utilities | Part IV. Troubleshooting |  | |
| SUSE LINUX Documentation Chapter 8. The GNOME Desktop / 8.4. Assistive Technology Support | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8.3. Important Utilities | Part IV. Troubleshooting | | |
GNOME offers a number of applications to support users with disabilities. These applications include an on-screen keyboard (GOK), a powerful screen reader (Gnopernicus) with magnification, speech and braille support, and a text entry interface (Dasher). Activate the support for any assistive technology in the GNOME control center, which can be accessed by clicking +.
GNOME On-Screen Keyboard (GOK) provides a virtual keyboard on screen if you cannot use standard mouse and keyboard devices to control you computer. With appropriate hardware support, you can use a joystick or any pointer device as the input device. To access GOK, click +++.
To edit a text file using GOK:
Click in the main menu, which is shown in Figure 8.9, “GOK in Use”.
Click to launch a GNOME text editor, then click to return to the main menu.
Click to launch the actual on-screen keyboard and start entering your text. If you need advanced editing functionality such as selecting, copying, pasting, or skipping characters, words, sentences, or lines, click . To return to the keyboard window, click .
To save the text you have written, click to return to the main window then click to launch a window containing buttons to open any menu from the text editor's menu bar.
Click + to open the file dialog of the text editor.
Click to type the filename via the virtual keyboard then click on the virtual keyboard.
To terminate the text editor, return to the main menu then click ++.
To configure the behavior of GOK, click + in the main window and adjust the , , , , , and settings.
For more information on GOK, see http://www.gok.ca, where you can also find comprehensive online help for this tool.
Gnopernicus is a powerful tool collection with various types of screen reading applications for blind and visually impaired users. It provides the following functionalities:
A speech synthesizer software is used to translate the actions on screen to spoken words. If your computer has a sound card, you can configure Gnopernicus to speak about anything that happens on screen.
If a braille device is connected to your computer, Gnopernicus can translate the screen directly to this device. If you also activated , you get an on-screen display of the braille output. This option is useful for demonstration purposes.
This module assists visually impaired users by magnifying the screen using a customizable zoom factor.
To access Gnopernicus, click +++. After Gnopernicus is started, its main menu appears in the top-left corner of the screen, as shown in Figure 8.10, “Configuring Gnopernicus”. You can determine which functionalities should be provided when your desktop starts by clicking . Each active module can be configured using the dialog.
For more information on the Gnopernicus project, see http://www.baum.ro/gnopernicus.html.
Dasher lets you create texts without using a keyboard. You can use it on any computer device that comes without a keyboard (handheld or wearable computers) or on a normal computer that is controlled with a joystick, touchpad, head mouse, or eyetracker instead of keyboard and mouse.
Dasher is driven by continuous pointer gestures. Start with one character, then drag the pointer to the next one until your text input is finished. Dasher supports various languages (English and European languages, Japanese, and some African languages) and can easily be trained to support other languages. For more information on the Dasher project, see http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher.
