Improving the Fedora boot experience

[Donald Buchan]

> > Can I suggest that the live installer is a much better approach to accessible installation ? You have the entire desktop accessibility infrastructure available there, including on-screen keyboard, screen reader, zoom, keyboard a11y, etc...
> 
> 
> I can see what you are saying, but it seems like a bit of a
> compromise, perhaps because it is?  I know that debian's installer and
> livecd support it, so surely we can too?  Having said that, it would
> be nice if the liveDVD included Orca and so on.  I have considered
> creating an "accessible" spin, with all of the necessary things
> included, but just have not had the time so far.  Furthermore, it
> seems a shame to keep it separate from the main desktop live image.
> Personally I would much prefer an inclusive approach, rather than
> essentially implying (albeit unintentionally) that visually impaired
> people should be kept separate and given special treatment.

My only experience with this -- being a normally-sighted linux user --
was a few years ago at a local LUG meeting during which the presentation
topic was to the effect of "Linux accessibility".

The two presenters were blind, and used Ubuntu, or a derivative of it
(out of France, as I recall) whose principal distinction for them was
that it was pretty much the only distro, or certainly the best by far
(at the time, anyway) that allowed them to download, burn, and then
install the distro easily and without the help of a sighted person --
because the text-to-speech abilities were enabled and integrated at the
installer level.  Whether the "only" or "best" part included French
support (their being native French speakers) is now beyond my
recollection, although I think this is a red herring in any case (since
I presume that Ubuntu has always had excellent localization support).

As a side issue (and one of the integral side-show components to the
meeting) these two guys were able to navigate their systems far better
and faster than I, and I suspect many others -- and not just because I
am not as technically capable as many.  Any doubts I may have had about
the blind being able to use computers easily were dispelled rather
spectacularly that evening, with the one exception of ease of
installation.

So I am certainly in favour of making the option of installing Fedora
"accessible" a mainstream option.  However I will of course leave the
"how" to those more wise and capable than myself, but I do wish to
underline the part I mention above "that allowed them to download, burn,
and then install the distro easily and without the help of a sighted
person".

Thank you