Accessibility

Simon Speech Recognition Project Moves to KDE

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Simon, KDE's speech recognition software, has recently migrated from Sourceforge to KDE's Git infrastructure. Developed to allow people with physical disabilities to control their computers entirely by voice, Simon has found its way into voice-controlled media centers in homes for the elderly and most recently in assistive care-giving robots.

The move has also brought Simon into KDE Extragear, the kde-accessibility mailing list, and KDE's accessibility sub-forum for user support.

The community around Simon has grown since the move, so this is a good time to join in for those interested in improving Simon or KDE's other accessibility projects. The Simon Listens e.V. is also accepting tax-deductible donations (translated from German) to further support development of their software.

Simon's lead developer Peter Grasch shares his experience migrating to the KDE ecosystem.


The Linux Box: Desktop Adapted for Dad

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Adam Trickett reports on his experiences of setting up KDE for his father in Desktop Adapted for Dad. His article on The Linux Box shows the range of features KDE has for someone with poor eye-sight and reduced hand coordination. He concludes by saying "modern Linux desktops are highly configurable, and with thought can be adapted for most people".


KDE 3.4 Will Talk to You

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The KDE Accessibility team is in the process of integrating speech synthesis into KDE. Not only does this mean better support for visually-impaired and speech-impaired users, but the new features should also prove for a fun desktop experience overall. An important milestone has been reached with the recent release of the KDE Text-to-Speech System (ktts).