Low Vision user - "best" desktop recomendations...

[pacman67]

Hiya,

I'm looking at moving my 83year old dad to Linux - he only visits one or two websites, and mum [80] only ever reads her emails.

Dad has VERY low vision, so I do all the support remotely - he is over 3 hours drive away. I get a phone call every third (or so day) regarding some pop-up/window/something that has changed. Often the pop-up is as simple as the anti-virus tell us it has done an update, but to him - any pop-up is bad... As he can't see them properly, this usually involves me connecting to his machine with TeamViewer and looking at what he was (sort of) seeing.

Somehow we have just 'upgraded' the machine he is on to windows 10 (no, I don't know how either) from windows 7 and the change "thing just aren't where they used to be" is giving me more grief than usual...

Thus I'm thinking Linux to the rescue. I looking at Sonar as it seems to be specifically designed for users like him, but I'm a Mint XFCE user (OK, NOOB) and would really like to implement a Mint solution. I'm thinking that by keeping both his and my systems/desktops mostly the same I wont have to learn how to do things in Arch or Gnome.

Does this logic seem sound?

Am i am idiot for NOT putting "special-just-for-your-dad-Linux" version on his machine? What about a desktop - would {say} fluxbox be a better choice?

Do all the assistive technologies work 'properly' in XFCE {a magnifier, high contrast display, speech, etc etc}? Would they work 'better' in {say} Mate or Cinamon?

Am i even asking the right questions?

Thanks heaps for your input in advance.
Paul

[phd21]

HI pacman67,

I don't know much about the Xfce edition of Linux Mint, because I use Linux Mint KDE. Emacspeak looks good and is in the Software Manager or Synaptic Package Manager (SPM) for all editions of Linux Mint.

Sonar looks good too. Vinux 4 is a Ubuntu derived distribution optimised for the needs of blind and partially sighted users. By default Vinux provides two screen-readers.

I do know that you can use high contrast themes, even black and white backgrounds or whichever high contrasting colors your Dad can see well, you can test it with him. You should be able to increase font and icon sizes too no matter what the screen resolution is in "folder settings" and system settings. There is a "screen magnifyer" too. You can also make more use of sounds, including speech recognition software, text to speech (Jovi on KDE).

Update 08-19-2015: Also, I would think that the largest high Res LED monitor you can get would be very beneficial too where you can increase the sizes of everything, with crisp sharp fonts; and as user "Exploder" mentioned, with browsers like FireFox, you can hit "CTRL +" to increase font size. There are also numerous FF add-ons, "Thumbs", "Thumbs plus", etc...

Special Firefox Add-ons For Visually Impaired Users
http://hellboundbloggers.com/2010/10/fi ... red-11738/

Thumbs
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/thumbs/

Various nice "Zoom" add-ons, including default large icons, fonts, etc...
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefo ... _pjax=true
=====================================================================================================
Help to Find a Readable Theme? - Discusses the low vision user
http://forum.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=197908

Vinux 4
http://vinuxproject.org/
http://vinuxproject.org/downloads
video of Vinux 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIvdv9EF1XE

Sonar GNU/Linux
An Accessible Operating System Focused On Assistive Technology

http://sonargnulinux.com/

http://sonargnulinux.com/downloads/

Blind + Linux = BLINUX - "The purpose of BLINUX project is to improve usability of the LINUX operating system for the user who is blind"
http://leb.net/blinux/

* Emacspeak - The Complete Audio Desktop
http://emacspeak.sourceforge.net/

Linux Accessibility HOWTO Some Technologies for the Visually Impaired
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Accessibility ... isual.html


Hope this helps you out ...

[exploder]

Three years ago I almost lost my sight. I had 20/300 vision when my inter-ocular implant dislodged and way less than that after the surgery to remove it. I went through over 3 months of very low vision until my eye healed and I got glasses. Gnome Shell worked best for me because I could not read the menu in anything else. When this happened I was running KDE and there was no way I could use it... I did not have anyone to help me really except for my at the time 6 year old son that was just learning how to read in school.

I installed a version of Fedora that had Gnome Shell 3.4 if I remember right. I just happened to have it already from looking at it luckily! My son and me managed to get it installed! I could see the big icons Gnome Shell used and the accessibility tools were great! I used the magnifier to navigate the system and used cont, + to make text in Firefox as large as possible! I tried the screen reader but it annoyed the crap out of me!

I used a plain dark background and a white cursor just so I could find it! At any rate, I could again use a computer! I think a better option now would be Ubuntu Gnome 14.04.3 just because it has a lot of support time compared to other choices. I was really lucky! I have 20/40 vision now thanks to 3 doctors but if I ever found myself needing accessibility tools again I would go with Gnome Shell over anything. Gnome Shell has got better over time including the accessibility tools.

[pacman67]

@phd21.

Wow, that is so much information. thank you HEAPS for you efforts.

(now I just need to wade through the information you have given me and make some 'best starting point' decisions).

Again - Thanks


And to all the other people who have read this and contributed - or perhaps read this and given a few minutes thought to how to make stuff better for the visually impaired - Thanks as well..

[phd21]

HI pacman67,

You are most welcome !

Please let us know what you and your Dad decided on, and how it is working for him. If you have any more questions, just ask ...

Keep in mind that you can "test drive" any of these versions of Linux that were mentioned by creating live DVD's or Live USB flash drives (16gb or better) of them, or doing full installations. If using DVD's, I would recommend using DVD+-RW discs which can save changes. You can also install the full version Linux Mint to USB Flash drives or DVD+-RW discs, add all the applications and utilities mentioned and "test drive" that as well before installing it on a computer.

Best regards ...

[Donncha]

Hi Pacman67 and Hi Forum
I hope you see this and that your Dad and Mum are still computing and well.
To save typing I am relating to your post as my situation is the same as your Dad's except I am the dad and i have no son. I am also 90 in January! Brain okay but vision not good and one eye totally kaput.
My PC was fine on XP but wouldnt install Windows 10 so l got a modern motherboard for Christmas 2018 and have wasted an entire year determined to get the hang of Win10 and have now decided to junk it and go Linux for the rest of my days.
Thus I ask did you ever sort out your OSs?
I thought you might save me some time LOL.
I am not frightened to experiment and I have used Puppy Linux on a mini PC before the era of tablets. I could just use Puppy but have the urge to try something different.
I have just spent two days trying out ZORIN and it failed. The distro imight or might been good but OS text (by which I mean the menus, sub menues, icons and OS notifications) were all to small for me to read on my 19" screen and I never was able to get it going. Beside which the texts were grey and I really need black. Light grey on grey is fatal - almost as bad as some web sites with black text on dark blue almost black backgrounds!!
The replies to your post from phd21 and others have of course given me plenty to keep me busy for the rest of the year - at least until the stupid Brexit affair! I am Irish/Brit living in France with an Irish passport so unaffected by the rsult!
Best rsegards
Don