From: Mark Allums <mark_at_allums.com>
Date: Sun, 31 May 2009 06:20:49 -0500

alex wallis wrote:
>
>
>> Rafaël Carré wrote:
>>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>>> Hash: SHA1
>>>
>>> Le Sat, 30 May 2009 15:40:00 -0500,
>>> "Scott Berry" <scottbb1973_at_gmail.com> a écrit :
>>>
>>>> Hello there,
>>>>
>>>> At the moment I only have Windows. I do use Linux but do not have it
>>>> set up for my Net book. Is there a way to do this through Windows?
>>>
>>> You can use cygwin environment, see
>>> http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/CygwinDevelopment
>>>
>>> If you use Linux, I advise you to use it rather than cygwin since
>>> cygwin can be very problematic.
>>>
>>> - -- Rafaël Carré
>>
>>
>> I have had good success with Debian Linux running under Windows Vista
>> 64-bit using VirtualBox. I don't know how well that would work on a
>> netbook, and I do not know how easy it is for a blind person to set
>> up, but it is Real Linux, and Real Windows.
> snip
> I am not really that used to linux, but I can speak from the perspective
> of a blind user.
> I should imagine in theory you could get a screen reader working in a
> virtual environment, however you would need sighted help, and as far as
> I know there are no sites that make virtual machines available with
> screen readers installed in them when you download them.
>
> This is just an observation not a criticism but I know rockbox does not
> provide a screen reader in the various virtual machines it makes
> available I guess because only a tiny minority of people would use it
> and also because it would increase the size of a package being made
> available.

[snippage]

> I hope the above info has been of use.
> Alex.

Virtualbox and some other products have "seamless" mode. It may be
possible for Jaws to read the Linux windows and terminals under seamless
mode. This requires "Virtualbox additions" to be installed on the linux
guest. No problem.

Also, Linux can be run in console/text mode, without a desktop
environment. This can then be put into full screen mode, all in a
virtual machine under Windows.

I expect some screen reader can operate under those conditions. That
is, some Windows screen reader might can read the screen in full screen
text mode.

Worth looking into further.

Mark Allums
Received on 2009-05-31