Linux for the Blind
Reproduction
Philippe, a staunch Esperantist!
– Hello Philippe, to begin this interview, could you please introduce yourself to our readers?
With pleasure . My name is Philippe NEAU , I live in the Vendée region, department 85, and I am 67 years old. It
has now been 48 years since I lost my sight following a car accident
caused by fog and the fact that windshields back then shattered into a
thousand pieces.
I quickly realized that I needed to retrain, especially since I was
about to turn 20 and my future was still very much ahead of me. So I
went back to school to catch up on the high school diploma I hadn't obtained, and continued with a physiotherapy course, first in Paris and finally in Limoges.
I completed this course in 1985, and I was hired in Les Sables-d'Olonne
where I practiced my profession as a physiotherapist for 31 years before
retiring in 2016. That's
my professional career of recycling, if I can express it that way, and I
still reside in Les Sables-d'Olonne about thirty kilometers from La
Roche-sur-Yon, my hometown.
– Under what circumstances did you get into computers?
For
blind people, computers offer a gateway to the world, insofar as they
provide access to writing, even if it's through a screen read by a
speech synthesizer. It's important to remember that access to written
language used to be through Braille, with all its limitations, and the
content of books is often outdated. Now, thanks to computers and speech
synthesis, blind people have access to general and universal
information. Braille is, of course, still relevant, especially in
associations, but it's relatively expensive because you have to buy Braille
pages or books ,
you have to know how to read Braille, and it's not very time-consuming,
even though people born blind are often very adept at it.
I lost my sight in 1977, and I started using computers a few years later, as soon as the first computer-based speech synthesizers became available (see note 1).
– And how did you switch to Linux?
I
stayed with Windows until version 10, but when I realized how closely
monitored and spied on it was, I initially went back to Windows 8. Then I
learned that Linux seemed more appealing because it didn't require
antivirus software and was more secure, making me feel safer.
So, about ten years ago, I switched to a Debian distribution with, of course, Orca as my screen reader.
For a better listening experience, I bought the Voxin speech synthesizer , which I'm happy with because it sounds more "human" than other synthesized voices.
– In Emmabuntüs we also have Piper. What do you think?
I did try it, but you have to find an application that's well-suited to it, like reading a book over a long period, because its execution speed is quite slow. But I don't personally have experience with that kind of reading. In fact, I'm spending a lot of time on social media these days, where I have PDFs that I have read quickly using text-to-speech.
– But let's go back a bit: how did you meet Patrick and Emmabuntüs?
In fact, it all started at a meeting about the June free currency . One of the participants then informed Claude [Editor's note: President of the YOVOTOGO association ] that a blind person was using a Linux computer, and we made contact. We later met at another June meeting. This led to my connection with Patrick via WhatsApp, and I took control of a refurbished computer on which Emmabuntüs was installed.
– Now that you are retired, what are your interests?
I'm
a bit of a computer geek myself, sometimes even out of necessity. For
example, earlier I wanted to make an online purchase, and it took me
ages because some e-commerce sites aren't very accessible to visually
impaired people. Not to mention the Captcha tests, which are a complete
obstacle for us if they don't include an audio file. And even the audio
files sometimes speak in difficult-to-understand English, forcing you to
restart the Captcha hoping to get a French voice.
Sometimes you also spend ages filling out a form only to end up with a fatal Captcha or a timeout. Very frustrating!
– But in these cases, are there people or an association that could help you on an occasional basis?
Yes,
there are associations, but they generally provide training over one or
more days to teach people how to use new software, for example. They
aren't designed for one-off, on-the-spot troubleshooting.
And with the experience gained over the years, we always try to troubleshoot, progress, and discover new things on our own.
– With that in mind, you should be happy to be able to test the new Emmabuntüs system.
Patrick
explained to me that Emmabuntüs comes with a lot of software because in
some countries, like Togo, internet connections are unreliable—or even
nonexistent—which isn't the case where we live. Besides, it's also
useful to have books in ePub or Daisy format on your computer and be
able to read them offline.
There are some programs I already use on my current computer, like the
Thunderbird email client, and I haven't reconfigured it on Emmabuntüs
because I already have enough trouble managing duplicates and syncing my
mobile phone with my computer.
I also have a computer technician neighbor who, for a very affordable maintenance cost, helped me to upgrade the initial configuration of my computer, and allowed me to discover other ways to access my Debian system and now I manage well.
This
computer was originally configured and maintained by the Hypra
association, for which I had also conducted tests to identify website
navigation difficulties for visually impaired users, making it
completely unintuitive.
I've also noticed that navigating my smartphone is becoming increasingly
difficult. Even with the effort of mentally visualizing websites, you
have to be extremely careful about where you touch the screen.
Once, my screen even started displaying Japanese characters, and I
couldn't turn it back. I showed it to a sighted person who also
couldn't, as the display was also in Japanese. Then, on another attempt,
I recognized some Japanese words and managed to switch back to French
after a few very uncomfortable moments.
– How do you manage to get around outside? Do you have a guide dog to help you?
So, taking a train trip like yesterday, even just 50 km from home, can be as unpredictable as going to Beijing, Cuba, or Yokohama. I couldn't find a bus or taxi at the arrival station, and by sheer luck, someone offered to help and ended up giving me a ride to my appointment. So, we always need to allow plenty of time and be very patient to ensure we arrive on time for our appointments.
Walking in my neighborhood is less of a problem since I've lived here for a long time and I use the TOM THUMB device (see note 2), which allows me to anticipate obstacles and adjust my trajectory accordingly. There's also the city of La Roche-sur-Yon, where I feel comfortable because I have familiar landmarks from the years before my accident. But in a foreign city, everything quickly becomes very complicated.
On
the other hand, I never wanted a dog, firstly because of my job, as it
would have had to lie under a table for more than seven hours a day, and
secondly, my workplace was right next to my home.
Another reason is that I travel a lot abroad, and having a dog during
these long trips isn't always possible. In fact, I speak Esperanto, and
an international congress is organized every year in a different city
around the world. This event is now well-established, since the first World Esperanto Congress
was held in France in 1905, and it's like a small family gathering.
There's a lot of mutual support among Esperanto speakers, which allowed
me to travel far from home. But in this context, a dog wasn't
necessarily a good option.
– How did you develop this interest in Esperanto?
I'd heard about it in middle school, around the age of fifteen, and I thought it was an excellent idea. Then in 1994, I heard a radio program where someone was presenting their arguments in favor of Esperanto, and at the end of the program, I called the radio station and got the contact information for a blind man who became my teacher for ten lessons, using Braille and audio cassettes. After that, I was able to continue on my own, and this wonderful adventure led to my first international trips. Thanks to Esperanto, I've been able to travel to eleven different countries, and at each congress, there are an average of sixty countries represented, although some less developed countries can't always send participants because of the cost of long-distance travel.
– Does a speech synthesizer speak in Esperanto?
Yes, there is one on eSpeak, but it's monstrously robotic, tiring, and not pleasant at all. There's also a Croatian woman who lent her voice, which I managed to get working on Windows, but I haven't been able to get it working on Linux.
– Thank you Philippe for your time, and I hope we can continue to work together on the Emmabuntüs distribution.
See you soon or ĝis baldaŭ in Esperanto.
Note 1 : Some milestones in speech synthesis
In 1961, John Larry Kelly Jr., a physicist at Bell Labs, used an IBM computer to synthesize speech. His vocoder (voice recorder synthesizer) recreated the song Daisy Bell.
In 1984, Apple unveiled the Macintosh with MacinTalk speech synthesis.
In 1995, Microsoft integrated the first text-to-speech (TTS) system into Windows 95.
In 1999, Microsoft launched Narrator, a screen reader solution now included in every copy of Microsoft Windows.
Note 2 : Tom Thumb is a removable electronic device developed by the Visio Foundation , a recognized public-benefit organization, that transforms a traditional white cane into an electronic one. This device uses infrared beams and a laser to detect obstacles, whether fixed or moving, at an adjustable distance of 1 to 15 meters in front of the user, as well as at a height of up to 2.5 meters. It anticipates the risk of collision, including with overhead obstacles such as shop shutters or branches, by signaling their presence through vibrations transmitted to the user's hand.
