Tony Baechler here. Samuel can comment on some points, but here are my thoughts: On 5/1/2017 11:26 AM, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:
Did people actually complain about the beep? If so, I'm starting to think the sighted end-users aren't willing to make any compromise at all for the benefit of their blind peers.
Yes, there were a number of complaints. I remember the discussion at the time. It was agreed that development versions of D-I wouldn't have the beep. I've since read positive feedback from the sighted that the beep is useful to them too. This is another case where making a small accessibility change helped a wider audience.
Though, while we're on the subject, is there any technical reason the beep couldn't be replaced with a prerecorded message that says "press s and enter for talking installer" or something similar?
Samuel can comment. The biggest problem has to do with loading sound drivers early in the boot process. It would take a lot of memory and slow down the boot time. Even as a blind person, I would find that annoying. The beep can be heard through the PC speaker and requires no sound drivers. I have yet to see a bootloader which actually supports sound. The beep is part of the menu system which is displayed by selinux.
Ideally, any instructions beyond put the disc in and boot the computer should be provided by the disc itself, and to be quite frank, requiring the majority to make an extra key press the disc can instruct them to make strikes me as more reasonable than to make a minority make an extra key press when the disc has no way of telling them they need to.
This is already done after a fashion. If you read the .txt files in the boot/ directory, there should be a mention of the "s" shortcut. I read those anyway to learn what other boot options the CD supports. There is no way to have the text files read out when the CD starts, but any machine which can read the DVD or CD media should be able to display them. Even Windows Notepad works fine.
Though, if there's a way to change which boot option is default on a Debian install disc, I'd like to hear it.
I think this can be done, but I don't know how.
2. Best I can tell, there's no way of rereading all or part of a specific screen within the installer, and any accidental key press during the reading of a new screen cuts off the reading.
It uses Speakup, so pressing Plus on the numeric keypad should read everything on the screen. I do agree that using the arrows would be nicer than having to hear a long menu and wait for the right number. Sometimes, text scrolls off the screen, in which case there isn't an easy way to repeat it.
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