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Disabilities and Assistive Technology

Here is a list of the different kinds of disabilities and what we can do to assist people that have such disabilities:

  • Low Vision
    • Support larger fonts and graphics (icons) or a screen magnifier.
    • Use clearer fonts, i.e. provide the ability to replace for instance a handwriting font by Helvetica.
    • Enlarge contrast between foreground and background.
    • Remove or avoid distracting background patterns/images.
  • Color Blindness
    Do not use color as the only way to express information.
  • Blindness
    To assist blind people in accessing OpenOffice.org we have to provide alternatives to the graphical user interface. These can be
    • Speech output uses speech synthesis to give a textual representation of everything visible on the screen.
    • Braille display
  • Hard of Hearing / Deafness
    • Closed captioning for providing textual representation of spoken information.
    • Visible representation of audio signals.
  • Mobility Impairments
    Caused by diseases like Parkin-son's disease or multiple sclerosis or physical injuries resulting loss of limbs there is a wide variety of mobility impairments. People can be assisted by:
    • Alternative pointing devices like foot operated mice or eye trackers.
    • On screen keyboard that is operated with the mouse or alternative pointing device.
    • Speech recognition.
    • Sticky keys provide functionality similar to shift locking for keys like control and alternate. This enables the user to operate the keyboard with a single finger.
  • Cognitive Impairments or Learning Disabilities
    Make the (G)UI clear and easy to understand. Provide help files and documentation (training?).
  • Seizure Disorders
    Make flashing, rotating, or moving displays adjustable or provide a switch to disable them.

See these lists of the different types of disabilities and assistive technology from the Gnome Accessibility Project for more details.