Speakup (Re: Ubuntu Accessibility)

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Mon, Nov 08, 2004 at 04:18:36PM +0000, Henrik Nilsen Omma wrote:

> I'm copying in Luke Yelavich who knows more about provisions for the 
> blind than I do, and the development list where features for the next 
> release are being discussed. We do currently have the gnopernicus screen 
> reader available in Ubuntu, but I get the impression that the 
> console-based speakup is actually the preferred solution for most people.
> 
> You would obviously prefer that speakup was included in the stock kernel 
> by default, but others might be weary of feature creep. You say that the 
> speakup patch is small, how much does it affect overall performance and 
> stability?

Here are some rules of thumb that we've applied so far for kernel patches:

- The patch must be actively maintained

- If the patch is safe and unintrusive relative to existing functionality
  (e.g., adding a driver), this is much preferred

- We much prefer patches which are on track to be merged into Linux mainline
  (Linus' tree).  Patches which have been rejected upstream due to being the
  wrong solution to the problem, for example, are generally unacceptable

How does the speakup patch look in this light?

-- 
 - mdz