Disabled to Get Greater Access to Linux From: SiliconValley.com - 01/21/2004 By: Dean Takahashi The Free Standards Group says it has established a task force to develop accessibility standards for Linux. Scott McNeil, executive director of the Free Standards Group, says a standard version will make it easier for Linux developers to develop software and hardware for disabled people; Linux developers have already created speech synthesizers that read aloud text. The strategy should encourage the development of keyboards and other devices that would be compatible with any Linux operating system software or applications. The Bay Area group wants to make Linux as accessible to people with disabilities as is Windows from Microsoft, which has introduced add-on features for the disabled since the mid 1990s. IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Red Hat, and a number of universities support the efforts of the Free Standards Group. Janina Sajka, the American Foundation for the Blind's director of technology research and development, one of the estimated 10 million Americans who are visually impaired, has used a special version of Linux for five years and says, "When this technology works, it changes people's lives profoundly." Read the full article at: http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/7759814.htm