Linux/Unix Accessibility Software
Recommendation: Linux-accessibility-related efforts are being started every day and are occasionally "retired". It is therefore difficult to list all projects or all links the encompass the entirety of imaginable tasks that fit under the heading "Linux accessibility". If you cannot find something here or are looking for a specific tool for a specific programming task, it is recommended that you search [http://www.google.com/ Google] and [http://www.sf.net/ SourceForge]. If you do find things not listed on these pages – please send a note listing them to one of the members in LarsGroup.
Anchor(OperatingSystemEnhancements)
Operating System Enhancements
Desktop/Toolkit Accessibility
[http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gap/ GNOME Accessibility Project]: An effort to incorporate accessibility features into GNOME, an entirely free desktop environment for Unix and Linux based systems.
Note: Gnopernicus is deprecated in favour of [http://cvs.gnome.org/viewcvs/orca/ Orca]. [http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gap/AT/GOK/index.html Gnome Onscreen Keyboard (GOK)]: Aims to enable users to control Gnome without a standard keyboard (with alternate input devices).
[http://accessibility.kde.org/ KDE Accessibility Project]: The purpose of the KDE Accessibility Project is to make the the entirety of the K Desktop Environment and (by necessity) its underlying technologies usable by and as efficient as possible for disabled users of all types.
[http://accessibility.kde.org/aids/#kmousetool KMouseTool]: KMouseTool is a Linux-based KDE program. It clicks the mouse for you, so you don't have to. KMouseTool works with any mouse or pointing device.
[http://accessibility.kde.org/aids/#kmag Kmag]: KMagnifier (or kmag, its unix name) is a small utility for Linux to magnify a part of the screen.
[http://accessibility.kde.org/aids/#kmouth Kmouth]: KMouth is a KDE program which enables persons that cannot speak to let their computer speak, e.g. mutal people or people who have lost their voice.
[http://accessibility.kde.org/developer/kttsd/index.php KTTS (KDE Text-to-Speech)]: a subsystem within the KDE desktop for conversion of text to audible speech. KTTS is currently under development and aims to become the standard subsystem for all KDE applications to provide speech output.
Low Vision
[http://www.beam.ltd.uk/products/xvi/ BEAM XVI for Linux]: A Screen Reader and Magnifier for X-Windows.
[http://www.enterprise.prosa.it/projects/projects GMag]: An X magnifier that features continuous magnification and contrast adjustments.
[http://lars.atrc.utoronto.ca/indepth/largemouse.htm How to use enlarged mouse cursors with the X window system (X11-big-cursor mini)]: This site describes how to use enlarged mouse cursors with the X window system.
[http://www.ro.kde.org/kzoom/ KZoom]: A KDE graphical application used to enlarge parts of the X Window desktop.
[http://200.201.81.39/xlupa xLupa]: xLupa is a project that is being developed in UNIOESTE (University of West of Paraná/Brazil). The primary goal of this project is to develop a screen magnifier for GNU/Linux.
[http://lars.atrc.utoronto.ca/indepth/puff.htm Puff]: Another X magnifier for users who need a very high level of magnification. Detailed information about Puff and instructions for running Puff under Linux are available.
[http://www.ro.kde.org/quax/ Quax]: A very small Qt graphical application, which can be used to enlarge parts of the X Window desktop.
[http://lars.atrc.utoronto.ca/indepth/unwindows.htm UnWindows]: A collection of programs that together can help low vision users working in X.
Keyboard and Mouse/Joystick
[http://cmos-eng.rehab.uiuc.edu/accessx/ AccessX]: Provides a free software utility to configure accessibility-related keyboard features in X.
[http://www.eklhad.net/linux/app/onehand.html Adapting The Linux KeyboardForOneHand]: Using a standard keyboard, the one-handed typist must move from side to side to cover all the keys. Linux users can experiment with the one-handed keyboard right away. Download either the left handed or right handed keyboard configuration file.
[http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher/ Dasher]: Dasher is a text-entry system developed at Cambridge University. Dasher is useful for computer users who are unable to type using a conventional keyboard and need a one-handed or hands-free option.
[http://www.gnu.org/software/gtkeyboard/gtkeyboard.html GTKeyboard]: A graphical (on-screen) keyboard written in GTK that is ideal for users only able to use a mouse or similar, one button input device.
[http://www.h.shuttle.de/mitch/joyd.en.html joyd]: a daemon that allows you to trigger commands on your computer by using your joystick. It can execute any program.
[http://www.etla.net/libstroke/ LibStroke]: a stroke translation library. Strokes are motions of the mouse that can be interpreted by a program as a command.
[http://www.fourtytwo.de/ One Handed Keyboard ]: This is a kernel patch for linux 2.2.XX, which enables you to use the standard keyboard for one-handed typing using the number keypad.
[http://onefinger.sourceforge.net OneFinger]: a file manager and a general-purpose GUI (graphical user interface) for writing CLI commands with the mouse for Linux.
[ftp://ftp.sgi.com/sgi/desktop/accessx/SGIaccessx.html SGI AccessX]: the predecessor to AccessX. Also known as "Access for Movement-Impaired Users," SGI AccessX is a graphical application that allows movement-impaired users to set and activate special keyboard features. It uses the XKB extension built into the X server in IRIX 6.2 and later releases.
[http://www.naturalpoint.com/smartnav/ SmartNav]: Hands free control of the mouse for linux.
[http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/ synergy2]: lets users share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems without special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s).
[http://www.workrave.com/welcome/ Workrave]: a program available for GNU/Linux and Windows that allows the user to schedule keyboarding break/pause prompts. Workrave is designed to assist in the recovery and prevention of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI).
[http://www.xstroke.org/ xstroke]: a full-screen gesture recognition program for the X Window System. It captures gestures performed with a pointer device, (such as a mouse, a stylus, or a pen/tablet), recognizes the gestures and performs actions based on the gestures.
Optical Character Recognition
[http://www.gnu.org/software/ocrad/ocrad.html Ocrad]: an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) program based on a feature extraction method. It reads a bitmap image in pbm format and produces text in byte (8-bit) or UTF-8 formats. It includes a layout analyser able to separate the columns or blocks of text normally found on printed pages.
[http://www.geocities.com/claraocr/ Clara OCR]: A very high quality X Windows reader.
[http://jocr.sourceforge.net/ JOCR/GOCR]: An emerging reader for X.
[http://http.cs.berkeley.edu/%7Efateman/kathey/ocrchie.html OCRchie]: an undergraduate honors project
[http://lem.eui.upm.es/ocre.html OCRE]: Another X reader under development.
[http://www.vividata.com/products_and_services.html OCR Shop]: a commercial Optical Character Recognition for Linux / UNIX based on the ScanSoft OmniPage® Engine.
[http://www.linux-speakup.org/socrates.html Socrates]: A text based OCR scanning and reading system (in CVS).
Speech
Software Speech Synthesizers
[http://espeak.sourceforge.net/ eSpeak]: eSpeak text to speech for english (and some other languages).
[http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/festival/ Festival speech synthesizer]: Festival is a general multi-lingual speech synthesis system with various APIs, a Scheme-based interpreter, and an environment for development and research of speech synthesis techniques.
[http://www.festvox.org/ Festvox]: A tool for building new synthetic voices for Festival.
[http://www.cmuflite.org/ Flite (festival-lite)]: A small, fast run-time synthesis engine developed at Carnegie Mellon University. It is primarily designed for small embedded machines and/or large servers.
[http://tcts.fpms.ac.be/synthesis/mbrola.html MBROLA]: The aim of the MBROLA project is to obtain a set of speech synthesizers for as many languages as possible, and provide them free for non-commercial applications.
[http://oiss.sf.net/ Open Interface for Speech Synthesizers (OISS)]: A Python interface for the Festival and DoubleTalk synthesizers.
[http://speechio.org/speechd.html Speechd]: Software that implements a /dev/speech device to which text can be easily 'piped' to be spoken by Festival.
[http://www.linux-speakup.org/tuxtalk.html Tuxtalk]: A software speech synthesizer based on rsynth that aimed for use with Speakup.
[http://www-4.ibm.com/software/speech/dev/ttssdk_linux.html ViaVoice TTS SDK (Text To Speech Software Development Kit) by IBM]: ViaVoice text-to-speech (TTS) technology uses various linguistic technologies to synthesize speech.
Screen Readers
[http://cvs.gnome.org/viewcvs/orca/#dirlist Orca]: a screen reader for Gnome.
[http://www.beam.ltd.uk/xvil/ BEAM XVI for Linux]: A Screen Reader and Magnifier for X-Windows.
[http://www.eklhad.net/linux/jupiter/ Jupiter]: This software makes Linux accessible to the blind user. Features an accumulated log of your interactive session as well as a screen review mode. Outputs the contents of the console and provides other useful console navigation functions via a kernel patch.
[http://www.euronet.nl/%7Eacj/eng-screader.html Screader]: This is a screen reader based on the Screen package. It reads the Linux virtual console screen and puts it through to a speech synthesizer without disturbing the running process.
[http://www.linux-speakup.org/speakup.html Speakup]: Outputs the contents of the console to the Double Talk internal synthesizer.
[http://www.freebsoft.org/speechd-el speechd-el]: a complete speech output system for Emacs. It can make Emacs both a completely speech enabled application suitable for visually impaired users or, depending on its configuration, it can speak only in certain situations or when asked, to serve needs of any Emacs user.
[http://yasr.sourceforge.net/ YASR (Yet Another Screen Reader)]: A screen reader for various *nix derivatives and has been tested with Speak-out, DEC-Talk Express, and DoubleTalk synthesizers.
[http://www.linux-speakup.org/ftp/disks/slackware/zipspeak/index.html ZipSpeak]: A talking mini-distribution of Linux that works with many hardware synthesizers.
Speech Recognition
[http://cmusphinx.sourceforge.net/html/cmusphinx.php CMU Sphinx Open Source Speech Recognition Engine]: Produced by the CMU Sphinx Group, this is a set of reasonably mature, world-class speech components that provide a basic level of technology to anyone interested in creating speech-using applications.
[http://www.kiecza.net/daniel/linux/ CVoiceControl], or the KDE version KVoiceControl: A speech recognition system that enables users to connect spoken words Linux commands.
[http://xvoice.sourceforge.net/ XVoice]: Enables continuous speech to text dictation for many X applications.
Braille
[http://www.brlspeak.net/ BRaiLleSPEAK]: A mini (UMSDOS) Linux distribution, with braille and speech support built in.
[http://dave.mielke.cc/brltty/ BrLTTY]: A daemon (constant background process) that outputs the contents of a Linux console (text mode terminal) to several refreshable Braille displays.
[http://www.butenuth.onlinehome.de/blinux/ BRASS]: A new program that combines speech and Braille output.
[http://libbraille.org/ LibBraille]: A library of functions pertaining to Braille translation and output tasks.
[http://www.nfb.org/nfbtrans.htm NFBTrans]: Grade II Braille translation software provided by the National Federation for the Blind (NFB).
[http://www.opensuse.org/Welcome_to_openSUSE.org SuSE Linux]: SuSE Linux 7.0 is the first Linux distribution to support installation and applications in Braille. The new screen reader BLINUX is a daemon that runs in the background to enable partially sighted and blind users to work comfortably in a Linux environment. (manufactured by Baum, Alva and HandyTech).
Console
[http://eca.cx/index.php Ecasound]: A command-line based audio and mixing package.
[http://emacspeak.sourceforge.net/ Emacspeak]: The first full-fledged speech desktop speech environment for Linux.
[http://sourceforge.net/projects/morseall/ Morseall]: A morse Morse controlled shell for Linux.
[http://www.linux-speakup.org/speak_freely.html Speak Freely]: A realtime text and audio IRC type program for the Linux, Unix and Windows platforms.
[http://www.linux-speakup.org/trplayer.html TRPlayer (Text-Mode Real Media Player)]: A command-line interface to the RealMedia player.
[http://www.hicom.net/%7Eoedipus/weave.html Patches to make Lynx speech-friendly]: Assorted resources related to working with the Lynx text-only browser.
Operating System
[http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/ Solaris 10]: An operating system that has various accessibility features. Developed by Sun Microsystems. More on Solaris Accessibility at [http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/korn/20050209 Peter Korn's Weblog], and [http://www.sun.com/software/star/gnome/accessibility/quickview.xml Solaris Accessibility Quick View].
[http://www.ubuntu.com/ Ubuntu]: Ubuntu is a free, open source operating system that starts with the breadth of Debian and adds regular releases (every six months), a clear focus on the user and usability (it should "Just Work", TM) and a commitment to security updates with 18 months of support for every release.