IMPLEMENTATION OF FREE SOFTWARE FOR 
VISUALLY IMPAIRED PERSONS 
Author: Vedran Vucic, president of the Board, Linux Center, Belgrade 
Abstract 
Introduction 
The world of personal computers became very much developed and very 
fast process of developments of processors, data storage devices, random access memory, 
operating systems and applications blurred border between what was until recently called 
desktop personal computer and powerfull working station. In the last 5 years many 
proprietary and non-proprietary operating systems started open competition which 
resulted in rather grim legal disputes from one side and increase of number of 
applications from the other side. Non-proprietary systems such as GNU/Linux and 
FreeBSD do have more than 11500 applications available for their users. Though they 
were until recently very hard for ordinary user to install and administer it is now getting 
easier each day to use them by ordinary user. Even as far as use for the visually impaired 
persons is concerned the hardest part was how to use GUI. Although, various screen 
readers exist it is still practical in many cases to stick to console regime of operation. 
FreeBSD and GNU/Linux do have majority of their the most important functions covered 
in the console regime so GUI is not the biggest problem from this point of view. Even 
more, it is technically much easier to make auditory representations of commands made 
in console regime. Consequently, numerous commands originating from the UNIX 
conception may be accessed and executed by the visually impaired person. 
License as space for the development 
In addition, according to GPL and BSD and similar licensing user and 
programmer must leave source code open and free for distribution and further 
modifications by other users and programmers. Interpretation of GPL license emphasizes 
social dimension of that fact that source code is actually information and that people do 
have right to exchange it freely if they want. However, since source code of GNU/Linux 
and some other operating systems (i.e. BSD family and some others) is given to the 
In this text author emphasize emergence of free software as a technology 
that may be helpful to visually impaired persons in using their personal 
computers in school, job or everyday life. GNU/Linux and other free 
operating systems (i.e. FreeBSD) due to their application compatibility 
provide user with a set of applications that may be used in various occasions. 
Since those applications and operating system are often recorded on bootable 
CDROM or USB key they may be quite usable in situations when visually 
impaired person travels a lot. It is important for schools, employers and 
many other institutions to contribute to the development of free software and 
other tools for visually impaired persons, since new technologies enable 
visually impaired persons to significantly contribute to many aspects of 
society.

public numerous programmers took that opportunity and started to develop applications 
for visually impaired persons. Since it is often easier to port one application to other 
operating system than to write it again from scratch, developers and kernel maintainers 
wrote comptibility layers that ensure binary compatibility of applications natively written 
for one operating system with other operating system. Thus, for example, FreeBSD does 
have option of binary compatibility with GNU/Linux applications and applications 
written for some other operating systems including proprietary ones, with FreeBSD. 
Hence, a wide range of applications became executable on various platforms. Interoperability 
prove to be significant improvement in making various applications accessible 
to visually impaired persons. It may be worth to note that software Sendmail which is 
responsible for sending approx 60% of all E-mail messages on the Internet is natively 
written for FreeBSD and that it runs on GNU/Linux too. However, sometimes rather 
complex but powerfull configuration should be done in console regime. Graphic 
environement GNOME does have some applications for visually impaired persons and 
German company SuSe which makes its own version of GNU/Linux include such 
software on a regular basis. 
Speech synthesizers 
Speech synthesizers originate even from the early days of operating systems 
since they were part of the concept in which operating systems were aimed for the 
management of complex telephone switching systems and speech synthesizers were 
planned for operations where telephone operators are not supposed to be present. Since 
several companies developed such devices Learnt & Hauspie, Fonix and many others, 
speech synthesis came to be available for average user. For example, DECtalk pricing 
tag (50 US$) is affordable for many users and there are some which are free of charge 
such as IBM Via Voice including software tools which may be used for creation of 
voices in different languages i.e. Festival created and maintained at the University of 
Edinburgh, MBROLA, Universite de Mons. 
IBM's Via Voice served for a years as excellent speech synthesizer for work with 
Emacspeak which is application that enables auditory representation of commands and 
work with applications in GNU/Linux operating system. 
Specialized distributions of GNU/Linux 
Several independent efforts to adopt GNU/Linux for visually impaired 
persons resulted in GNU/Linux distributions that enable visually impaired person to read 
and write various files, send and receive E-mail, browse the web and execute numerous 
commands for administration of the system. Emacspeak is not only screen reader, it 
follows standards that enables user to understand logic of the document. For example, if 
there is calendar on the screen of personal computer usual screen reader will read many 
numbers to the user. Emacspeak will understand that number which is let say written in 
italic and 2 points larger and emphasize that that number is different than others. This is 
very important when various HTML and XML documents are concerned including 
scientific texts based on typesetting techniques. Even besides, purely technical issues it 
is very important to emphasize that free software enables local developers to easier 
modify current software and adopt it to the needs of local end-users. For example, it may 
be possible to adjust functions for the school or occupational purposes where visually

impaired person may get job in E-mail service at shopping centres or in any situation 
where frequent replies or reading E-mail messages or portals may be required. In some 
cases developer or trainer may train visually impaired person to do basic system 
administration by using commands in console regime or with GUI when needed by using 
special hardware that may be very helpful. In addition, software may render text in 
auditory form so it can create audio books which may be helpful for wider community. 
Though, criteria of accessibility is very much present in the world of GNU/Linux 
(German SuSe Linux was from the very beginning involved in implementation of 
auditory representation of interaction with personal computer) two GNU/Linux projects 
seems to reach significant results. 
One is Blinux which is actually GNU/Linux with auditory representation 
software and another Oralux. Though in some parts they are similar we have tested more 
Oralux which is placed on bootable CDROM. It installs itself in RAM, recognizes 
hardware including modem, soundcard, Ethernet card so the user does not need to install 
it on hard disk and it may perform well on weaker configurations too. We tested it even 
on PC with 166MHz CPU and 96 MB RAM which is we can say a sort of bottom line 
personal computer owned by socially deprivileged user. The fact that is on bootable 
CDROM which installs operating system with applications in RAM is suitable for endusers 
since they can bring CDROM with themselves while they are for example on a trip, 
and to use computer that is equipped with sound card. New version will be also bootable 
from USB key so it will be even easier for the visually impaired person to use it in 
everyday work. However, they can use any IBM compatible personal computer 
regardless of possibly already installed operating system which should remain intact. 
Numerous applications based on typesettng enable visually impaired user to print music 
scores, mathematical texts or other sorts of text with or without conversion in other 
formats such as .pdf .ps that may serve for other purposes too i.e. participation at 
conferences, seminars etc. 
Full explanation of its functionality requires much more space which is out of scope of 
this paper, but it is worth to do additional efforts to help visually impaired persons to use 
it in school, job or everyday life. However, it cannot replace some tools that visually 
impaired person may need but it is more than suitable for average visually impaired 
person because of manifold reasons; it is free of charge, it is efficient, it is easy to bring it 
on travel, it is free to modify it for specific purpose and it is easy to receive technical 
support on discussion list. 
In companion with other useful devices free software may be successful companion to 
visually impaired person. 
Vedran Vucic 
Linux Center 
President of the Board