Accessible-Coconut (AC) is a community-driven Linux distro that aims to make technology accessible for the visually impaired. This distro is feature-packed with all possible accessibility tools to assist people with visual disabilities.
AC aims to create an eye-free desktop environment that evolves itself to suit the needs of visually impaired users.
Why Is a Distro Needed for the Visually Impaired?
Computers are becoming an integral part of all realms of life. More and more people are connecting with technology; with this thought in mind, why should disabled people be left behind?
Accessing computers is not as simple for such a niche population, as it might be for a visually capable user. The former set of people have to deal with complex learning curves, given their physical limitations. However, with the use of accessibility tools, a distro like Accessible-Coconut can make many dreams come true for the disabled group.
Accessibility tools are no longer an additional feature since they have become the entire point of such specialized distros. Distros like Accessible-Coconut are an excellent choice for operating systems for visually impaired people who are not very tech-savvy but want to get their jobs done by machines.
Features of Accessible-Coconut
Accessible-Coconut features a plethora of easy-to-use accessibility features across the platform. Since this distro is specially developed for blind and low-vision people, its features are all geared towards helping the minority group in whichever way possible.
For example, the screen reader is Orca, while the speech engine is eSpeak. Users have an option to choose other forms of speech engines, including IBM ViaVoice and Cepstral.
All the accessibility tools are present in the Universal Access section and are accessible while performing any task(s) on the system.
Visually challenged people often require specialized software to read books and documents. In this regard, optical character recognition proves to be an excellent way of converting regular documents into accessible ones.
The book reading features in Accessible-Coconut include:
- Print reading: The print reading feature offers the facility to read printed books using an optical character scanner. This scanner can linguistically translate major languages like English, Spanish, Hindi, and Arabic.
- Daisy-player: The Daisy-player plays books in DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) format. This player majorly works as a CD player, as it has large tactile controls specially designed to cater to blind and low vision readers.
- Ebook speaker: The Ebook speaker reads books in standard formats like EPUB, PDF, text files, etc.
Accessible-Coconut comes with pre-built audio and video players to offer an excellent multimedia experience to the user. Standard system utilities like web browsers, email clients, messenger, PDF viewers, and text editors are preinstalled in the OS.
Software Shipped With Accessible-Coconut
Some software shipped with Accessible-Coconut include:
- Tux Typing: Tux Typing is a game tailor-made for learning and practicing typing and Braille layouts.
- Ibus-braille: Ibus-braille is ideal for typing text in six or eight-key Braille mode.
- Transmission: A graphical BitTorrent client to download data.
- Screen reader: The screen reader feature reads out the contents on the screen and eliminates the visual aspect of using an operating system.
- Six key inputs: Regular keyboards are often hard to use for visually challenged people. This feature helps users type any form of text using six keys of the keyboard with Braille knowledge in Perkin's Brailler mode.
- On-screen keyboard: The on-screen keyboard feature adds a virtual keyboard to the screen. This on-screen keyboard can type text through mouse inputs by the user. This feature, combined with the screen reader, is a great help for people who can’t use the keyboard altogether.
- Sharada Braille Writer: The Sharada Braille Writer helps the user write in Braille script. The app offers a six key approach, which includes alphabets like f, d, s, j, k, and I. On the numeric front, it also offers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 for the braille dots.
There are a series of other common Linux-oriented software, including the likes of VCDImager, Grub Customizer, Startup Disk Creator, Document Viewer, Periodic Table, Blueman, Brasero, GParted, and many more.
Working With a Special Distro for the Visually Impaired
Accessible-Coconut is a great desktop environment for the visually impaired because of its carefully designed feature sets. Easy-to-use features and its open-source nature make it famous among the disabled community. Accessible-Coconut is a must-have for anyone looking for a stable operating system for blind and low-vision people.