On Mon, Apr 14, 2008 at 07:39:40PM -0400, Douglas A. Tutty wrote: > On Mon, Apr 14, 2008 at 03:13:07PM -0700, Andrew Sackville-West wrote: > > > On 14-Apr-08, at 9:58 AM, Douglas A. Tutty wrote: > > >> Perhaps debian should have an accessible install CD in addition to all > > >> the different DTE install CDs. E.g. one where sound works on most > > >> boxes > > >> and comes up with voice prompts automatically. Ideally, it would be a > > >> whole new installer with question/answer dialogs with a repeat > > >> function > > >> as in (say that again?). > > > Doug, I think it's a great idea -- I wonder just how complicated it is > > to get sound up and working during the install... It can't be that > > bad, I think windows does it. > > If it turns out to be difficult (perhaps due to size constraints), > perhaps there could be one or two popular (cheap) hardware options for > people who find it doesn't work. E.g. "If you don't hear "Welcome to > the Debian Installer" when you boot the installer, you may attach one of > the following to your computer temporarily during the install: sb > (supports a lot of cards), or perhaps a USB device that is easy to find > and cheap. hmm... reading this leads me to think that someone who *needs* sound (a category that most of us *don't* fall into no matter how much we think we might) would be particularly conscious of the need to have compatible sound equipment. It may be that the majority of blid computer users already think of this -- "I need sound that positively works" -- and purchase equipment accordingly. But that's only a guess. My point though is that it may not be such a difficult problem as we think. Put the most common, most compatible, drivers in and call it good. Is there a "standard" sound interface? sort of like there is the vesa driver in video that works with (essentiall) *every* video card? and one more thought. Could it be possible to write a video driver that is essentially a dummy? A blind user does need X to actually draw on the screen (unless they're working with a sighted assistant). It only needs X to think it's drawing on the screen... just some, probably very naive, thoughts on the issue... A
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