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Re: [school-discuss] open source special needs and early grade applications sought



On Thu, 2006-09-14 at 16:27 -0400, Daniel Howard wrote:
> Our special needs, Kindergarten, and first grade teachers are asking me 
> for the following Linux apps to use on our school wide K12LTSP systems:
> 
> 1. A talking word processor (Windoz app: Talk out loud): speaks the 
> words as the students type them on the screen in the word processor

http://packages.debian.org/stable/kde/konq-speaker

I'm looking into kate right now. It supports the konq-speaker plugin and
thus will read the screen to the user. Kate is a KDE text editor.

> 
> 2. A predictive word processor (as students type words, it gives them 
> typical choices to complete the words)

OpenOffice does to some extent (big words only - poly-syllable).
There's a DOS app (should run under freeDOS very well) called MindReader
http://trace.wisc.edu/world/computer_access/dos/dosshare.html
> 
> 3. A talking screen reader, so that younger students can take tests like 
> those in Accelerated Reader by having the questions read to them. 
> Currently, parent volunteers come in to do this, but I know that at 
> other Atlanta Public Schools where parent volunteers are few and far 
> between, a computer-spoken version of online tests would be extremely 
> useful.

In the Gnome desktop, there is a built-in screen reader called
gnopernicus. It can be activated by default on a per user basis. I'm not
sure how adept it is on a web page. Many screen readers have problems
with "busy" web pages. There is a firefox extension project called
"fangs" that is working to provide a text input for Jaws (a respected
screen reader) for use on a Windows based environment. 

Also, the konq-speaker plugin may work as konqueror is also a browser.
> 
> Regards,
> Daniel
> 
-- 
James P. Kinney III          
CEO & Director of Engineering 
Local Net Solutions,LLC        
770-493-8244                    
http://www.localnetsolutions.com

GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics)
<jkinney@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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