Accessibility
Navigation |
|
|
Our aim is to make Ubuntu and its derivatives usable by as many people as possible across ages, language and physical abilities. To do that we must provide wide access to the platform, the included software and ultimately to the information we all use and exchange. For some groups of users, platform access requires specialised assistive technology (AT) tools, and those tools must be proven to work well with the remaining desktop software and information on the web or in other formats. Ubuntu is about computing for everyone.
Read more about the general issues of computing with disabilities in the background section or about the needs of specific user groups.
The Accessibility Team
The Ubuntu Accessibility Team works to improve the accessibility support on the Ubuntu platform and the software that runs on it. We communicate on IRC, via mailing lists and in the Ubuntu forum.
The new features we are working on are described in the Specifications section. We welcome your input on these, either as edits to the specs themselves or via posts to the mailing lists or forum.
Current priorities
We are currently working towards doing research with existing users of Ubuntu to identify what accessibility requirements exist and what work needs to be done in these areas. We will then be able to identify solutions and if required coordinate development to implement them. We also aim to increase awareness of the issues around accessibility with the rest of the Ubuntu project. We will create focus groups around different areas of software (for example text-to-speech, screen readers, voice recognition etc) to bring together people interested in each area.
An accessibility session is to be submitted for the Maverick developer summit in May 2010.
Help and documentation
Some Ubuntu accessibility documentation exists, including a getting started guide. If you have further questions or suggestion you can reach us via IRC (#ubuntu-accessibility), our mailing list or the ubuntu forum.
Feedback
Read feedback from users of Ubuntu from an accessibility perspective.
External Links
- a11y projects for desktop environments:
- a11y projects for software:
BLINUX - Project who's aim is to improve the usability of the GNU/Linux operating system for users who are blind.