diff --git a/ideas/index.md b/ideas/index.md index 9f0a455..e99f832 100644 --- a/ideas/index.md +++ b/ideas/index.md @@ -462,3 +462,90 @@ The corporation to initially develop it will license it for use with their appli Even at 10% per ride as an "off the top" for the company creating it could be profitable. Not exceedingly profitable, not venture capital and investors profitable, but it could support a small team, I'm sure. + +## 15. Embedded Accessibility + +### 15.1 Embedded Assistive Technology Layer + +"Decolonize" GNOME's accessibility structure. +GNOME has accidentally capped it's assistive technology services by making them absurdly complex to develop for, especially in other languages. +I can submit my own experience as proof: trying to work with GIR (GNOME Intermediate Representationn) in Rust is a fricken' nightmare. +This exends to every aspect of the API. +Why do we have the following types: + +* `GArray` +* `GInt` +* `GHashMap` +* `GAccessible` + +What we need when it comes to accessibility is *extremely* portable C that can be built on any platform ***even without a standard library***. +Licence it as LGPL so that "big tech" may benefit if they wish. + +Now, we can use: + +* `[insert structure here]` +* `uint_32` +* `[{char*, char*}]` +* `struct Accessible` + +All of these would be native C types specific to the accessibility interface and without building a large project with Meson and GNU automake. + +Dead simple, C99 with native types that can be compiled on any system with a Makefile. + +Maybe some bindings for other languages, code generation so that new methods and structures can be defined automatically... But that's far in the future. + +### 15.2 Embedded Voice + +I know that there are alraedy embedded voice solutions, but is there an open-source (libre) one? +Is there one that is so bare bones that it can compile on an [Arduino](https://www.arduino.cc/)? +I bet not. + +Sure it might not have all the nice features of, say, speech dispatcher, but it could at least allow easy accessibility for low-power devices like a flip phone. +It may not seem relivant, flip phones after all are 10 years behind the mainstream, but I answer that with another question: do the blind have the freedom to choose? + +No. + +They choose what products *have* accessibility features, +and since accessibility is not requied by law for these consumer devices (after all it's a choice to own a phone at all), +and since each company needs to develop their own accessibility stack--- +it would appear that freedoms have been limited by this difficulty. + +### 15.3 Embedded Screenreader + +Finally, if the other two sections are made possible, then we may have a change at a "no std" screenreader. +It seems far-fetched now, but why not? +Add-in cards from the 90s could sythisize speech from the text shown in a DOS pronmpt, so why can't we have at least basic voice on every Microwave, TV remote, toaster, and toilet? + +My point is not that it is necessary for all these things. +My points is that right now it's not a choice. + +I'm not sure how well something meant to be this simple could scale up to desktop usage, +but what I can say is that I'm sure it would perform like mad. +This thing would soar through speech and events. +It would be so fast that "Big Tech" would be green with envy at the simplicity, embeddability, and performance that the open-source community has created. + +Maybe one day they'll want to adopt the standard for themselves? +Who knows. + +My point here is that if the code was written in a far simpler manner, +and if it was written to not need access to the standard library, +then maybe, just maybe there's a chance creating something that is lightning fast, easy to interface with, and simple to implment could create a whole new world of accessible tech for the blind. + +Imagine if a *tiny* Cortex-M0 was able to process accessibility events the same way at-spi does right now. +Don't tell me that this wouldn't be a game changer. + +Speaking of a game changer... + +## 16. Accessible BIOS 2: Electric Boogaloo + +What if you could use an embedded screenreader in the BIOS? +What if you could include it in nearly any BIOS since it's easy to compile and implement for nearly any system? +What if a baby RISC-V chip were able to receive events over USB-C and use piezo-electrics to have a one-cell braille display on the side of a [Framework](https://frame.work/) laptop? + +No we're talking! +No more need to ask if your computer is on, or if it is still booting; simply have a different letter for each section of the boot process display on the one cell. +Maybe this would require firmware, who knows. + +Dream big, baby! +Might as well, since we gotta live here either way. +