[linux-audio-dev] Re: [off-list] Read this after your first cup of coffee

[Luke Yelavich]

On Sat, Aug 21, 2004 at 10:10:47PM EST, Paul Davis wrote:
> >> erm... actually they can:
> >>
> >> http://www.digidesign.com/users/user_story.cfm?story_id=1020
> >
> >well spotted that man.
> 
> well, yes and no.
> 
> mr boggs doesn't use any aspect of the protools GUI to run
> protools. he uses outSPOKEN, a speech recognition system, and a JL
> Cooper control surface. since you could connect this style interfaces to
> more or less any program, this either suggests that design for the
> sight-impaired is unnecessary, or that mr. boggs would still be better
> off with a specially designed, non-GUI system. 

Sorry to be pedantic here Paul, but Outspoken is in fact a screen reader. There
is a difference between a screen reader and speech recognition.

In terms of using GUI software, there is in fact software for Windows, that
allows blind/vision impaired users to use Cakewalk Sonar with a screen reader.
Just how this is done, I do not know, but it is done.

> i still don't understand how mr. boggs could edit using protools in
> the style that such programs have made rather popular. i have a spent
> quite a bit of time talking with jeremy hall and others about how we
> could add editing to ardour/ksi, and my conclusion is that its a
> research project worthy of at least a master's degree, perhaps even a
> doctorate. 

This is certainly worthy of discussion. However, I think it would be nice to
get a wider point of view, from other blind/vision impaired people.

I am preparing to launch a project to discuss this very issue, among others.
I will be asking blind/vision impaired users from the Windows world, who might
be interested in Linux Audio to put forward their views about what they would
find useful. In this discussion, we could also find out how existing Windows
users do their work with CakeWalk, and the screen reading software.

> the point about GUI systems for tasks like audio editing is that the
> screen functions as a sort of backing store for your memory. you don't
> have to remember where all the audio regions/events/clips are, because
> the screen will show you, both statically and more importantly while
> moving one (or more) them around. if you can't see the screen, then
> you either have to (1) remember where everything is yourself, and edit
> using only that memory or (2) devise some other form of mnemonic
> design that performs the same role as the screen does for
> non-sight-impaired users.

I guess this is why people are able to use CakeWalk, and have screen reading
software developed for it, simply because it doesn't use regions, however I
am sure some vision impaired users would have good ideas as to how the regions
issue could be worked around.

> i have no doubt that with speech recognition and a control surface,
> tracking and mixing things in the same way that a sight-impaired
> person would have use a tape machine (analog or digital) is entirely
> possible. i suppose people used to do what is still called "3 point"
> and "4 point" edits on systems that had no waveform displays, so i
> guess that is still an approach to editing that is accessible to a
> sight impaired user. however, it doesn't seem to come close to the
> capabilities offered for creative music production by today's DAWs,
> and those capabilities seem to me to be fundamentally predicated on
> the visual memory provided by the GUI.
> 
> --p
> 
> 
> 

-- 
Luke Yelavich
http://www.audioslack.com
luke at audioslack.com