An Ode to KK

No, I am not talking about the singer or the actor—the story is about a visually challenged programmer from Bangalore, named Krishna Kant Mane, whom I met at the Freed.in conference, where I was speaking this year. He codes programs, builds software—he is writing an accounting software called GNUKhata—and is an active speaker, teacher and activist. KK’s talk at the conference led to a huge discussion on which screen reader software works best for visually impaired users.

There have been thousands of white papers on how accessibility is important in a PC. If you have ever noticed those two small notches on the keyboard under F and J and wondered there are for, well they may not have been put there for visually challenged people, but they do help them.

There are no computers with a Braille interface, but with advances in Speech Synthesiser technology, screen reading software and other features, it is becoming easier for visually impaired people to use a computer.

A software called Orca, which is included in the Linux distribution, is what makes all this possible. Orca is a free, open-source screen reader. Though it works on a Gnome Linux box, people are trying to get it to work on other platforms. To know more about Orca, go to: http://live.gnome.org/Orca.

To know if his computer has shut down, KK has to place his finger next to the air vent of his laptop to see if the fan has stopped spinning. He wishes the machine could say goodbye.

I know this is not one of my usual tech stories, but we all have to contribute in some way to help brighten up the lives of other individuals. Hope this article inspires some of us to think and build solutions for other challenged people, and to help someone use a computer better.

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The above story was published in the Indian Express, on Sunday, March 1, 2009
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Photo Courtsey: Jace - Flickr