Peter Korn's Weblog

As I noted last January, the Carroll Center had some very thoughtful comments about ODF in their blog entry "Déjà Vu All Over Again". Today their All About Access blog has an update. Titled "Things are Looking Up Re ODF", this entry talks about an ODF Plug-in, strongly encourages Windows AT vendors to support ODF applications like StarOffice/OpenOffice.org, and also shares excitement about the opportunities for the blind that the Orca screen reader is opening up.

one of the products demonstrated was a functioning prototype of a Microsoft Word plugin that allows the user to quickly and easily import and export ODF documents without any loss of formatting. The production of such a plugin, once thoroughly tested to ensure that no formatting ever gets lost in the translation, means that employees who are blind can access and produce ODF documents without any loss in productivity or quality of their work. To me, that’s enough for the Commonwealth to proceed with the migration as scheduled. They get their open format, and we don’t suffer any consequences as a result.

Freedom Scientific and GW Micro: We NEED you to support these alternative office suites. Not just in the Commonwealth because of the switch to ODF — that’s just what’s bringing the issue to the forefront, and unfortunately doing so in a rather hasty fashion. We NEED you to support these alternatives because consumers who are blind have a right to the same options as everyone else. We NEED you to support these alternatives because the majority of consumers who are blind cannot afford to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on an office suite. And we NEED you to support these alternatives because they are where things are going.

As someone who uses Linux on her non-work-related computers, I was thrilled to learn that Sun was hard at work on a Linux screen reader. Orca is still very much under development, but for a product at the ripe old age of version 0.2.5 it is quite impressive.

A large percentage of people who are blind/visually impaired cannot afford a computer — not because of the cost of the computer, but because of the cost of the operating system, the mainstream applications, and the assistive technology needed to access it all. For these users, the price of Linux, OpenOffice, and Orca — the grand total being $0 — is right. This can make a HUGE difference when it comes to enabling consumers who are not pursuing an officially agreed-upon Vocational Rehabilitation goal to obtain the technology they need to independently manage their daily affairs.

What I find exciting is the prospect of an open source screen reader. Because it is open source, we can see the underlying code that makes it do the things it does. Because it is open source, we can contribute in a very direct fashion to its development. Because it is open source, if it doesn’t provide us the access we need, we can MAKE it provide us the access we need. Of course, we will have to educate ourselves quite a bit to do that. The open source world is not the world we’re used to. We’re used to making requests of the companies that provide us access and hoping that they will listen. And we feel we have that right as a paying customer. Sometimes we luck out; sometimes we don’t. But we have no control whatsoever. In the open source world, if we invest our time and effort in a constructive fashion, we CAN have some control and we CAN shape the access products that we use. In the open source world, access is not something bestowed upon us; access is something we design and implement to suit our unique needs and wants. That is empowering. That is exciting.

CSUN accessibility sessions audio now available

After a disappointingly long delay, I'm happy to report that audio from our two Orca sessions at the CSUN Conference on Technology and Persons with Disabilities, and the Open Document Format Accessibility panel discussion, are now available for your listening pleasure. They are encoded in Ogg Vorbis format, which is an open source audio compression and encoding system that to my ear sounds a lot better than MP3 when compressed to the same or even smaller bit-rate. Ogg Vorbis players are available for most every platform, and the latest players for Windows like WinAmp can play them automatically.

Note: streaming video is also available for viewing from TV Worldwide. Point your Windows system to their CSUN coverage page for these three sessions, among others, that they are hosting there. (2006-06-28 12:48:52.0) Permalink

Another ODF accessibility option on Windows: ODF plug-in to MS-Office

As I've reported here, the file format concerns are well in hand. That leaves the second issue we need to address. And as I noted in the survey last November, there are lot of different issues and needs that arise from the different sorts of disabilities folks are dealing with. As much as things are improving (with increasing support for applications like StarOffice/OpenOffice.org and IBM Workplace by assistive technologies in Windows and on UNIX), there is an incredibly rich ecosystems of assistive technology products in use, especially on Windows designed specifically to work well with Microsoft Office. The full richness of those offerings cannot be replicated overnight (even as applications like the GNOME On-Screen Keyboard and the Dasher alternative text entry system offer more efficiency and productivity than Windows counterparts with MS-Office).

Which is why I'm delighted by the 7 responses to the ODF Plug-in Request for Information issued by the Massachusetts Information Technology Division. These responses outline approaches to add ODF reading/writing (or importing/exporting) functionality into Microsoft Office. With such functionality in place, users of existing assistive technologies on Windows could continue to use them with their copies of Microsoft Office - only now they would be doing so with ODF files (rather than simply those file formats that Microsoft Office happens to support directly).

Going this "plug-in" route doesn't obviate the need to improve native assistive technology support for ODF applications. But it does mean that while such support improves and matures, existing Microsoft Office users who have an effective working environment need not be disrupted, or moved to a different environment that impacts their efficiency or productivity - before it and they are ready. A "plug-in" offers the option of waiting until their specific needs are met (or perhaps even exceeded) with the alternatives being developed now.

Over the coming months it will be very interesting to see how the "plug-in" options presented in response to the RFI are reviewed by Massachusetts, and whether they go forward with one or more of them, (and how their testing of them with assistive technologies pans out). (2006-06-21 00:05:00.0) Permalink Comments [1]

From Italian Latin to High Elvish (and Orcish, and...)

Not only do we sing in a lot of languages in the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, but also in various language dialects (this year alone we had German-Latin [Carmina burana, Mahler 8, Oedipus Rex] and Italian-Latin [Verdi Requiem], Old-Middle-German [Carmina burana], plain-old-normal German [Mahler 8, Haydn The Storm, Mozart Coronation Mass], Russian [Babi Yar], French [The Nightingale], and of course English [Handel Messiah] - not to mention the smattering of languages in the Chorus Concert).

But with our upcoming performance of The Lord of the Rings Symphony we add a few new languages to repertoire: High Elvish, Orcish (and perhaps a few others; I'll find out tonight when we being our first rehearsals). From the San Francisco Symphony concert blurb:

Relive the award-winning soundtrack of The Lord of the Rings, composed by Howard Shore. Original illustrations and storyboard sketches by renowned Tolkien artists Alan Lee and John Howe projected onto a screen above the orchestra create a unique multimedia experience. Played by the full orchestra, this concert proves once again that digital surround sound in the movie theater is no match for the real thing.

This should be a hoot! As a fan of Tolkien, I'm looking forward to being part of this.

But first we have a few more Verdi Requiem performances to finish... (2006-06-20 11:00:51.0) Permalink

Requiem Aeternam

The choral season of the San Francisco Symphony comes to a close with performances this week and next of the Verdi Reqiuem.

This is Vance George's last year with the Symphony Chorus. After 23 years leading our chorus, he is retiring. I first met Vance when he was guest preparing the U.C. Berkeley Chorus in what was my first performance of the Beethovan Ninth Symphony. When I graduated from Berkeley, I immediately joined the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, under Vance George. This Verdi Requiem we perform this week and next is the last one Vance is preparing. This is our, my, goodbye to him.

Two of the choral pieces this year hold another, special meaning for me. Shostakovich' Symphony No. 13, Babi Yar is a setting of several poems by Russian poet Yevtushenko, the first of which tells the story of the murder of 100,000 Ukranian Jews in the Babi Yar ravine in World War II. By the end of our performances (and by the end of most of the rehearsals) I was quietly weeping through my singing.

During World War II Teresienstadt was the "Red Cross show-off camp", a concentration camp that was presented by the Nazis to the outside world as a model Jewish settlement (and that the Red Cross were allowed to visit). In reality it was where many Czech Jews - especially those who were culturally known - were housed en-route to the death camps like Auschwitz. Some of the many fine musicians among those in Teresianstadt took to organizaing musical and cutural activities - notably Karel Schwenk and Rafael Schaechter - using occasionally smuggled instruments and of course voice. In September 1943, after some months of preparation Rafael Schaechter put on a performance of the Verdi Requiem, with a chorus of 150 voices, the 4 soloists Marion Podolier, Hilde Aronson-Lindt, David Gruenfeld, and Karen Berman, and piano accompaniment. A second performance by this group wasn't realized - a transport train to the East wiped out most of the chorus. But another chorus was assembled of similar size, and again the Requiem performed. And again the another transport demolished the ensemble. And again, Schaechter assembled another chorus.

In all, Schaechter put on around fifteen performances of the Verdi Requiem. One of these was a command performance for the Committee of the International Red Cross, hosted by Adolf Eichmann, during one of their visits to Teresienstadt.

My mom never heard any of these performances. Schaechter was gone by the time she had arrived. But she was enriched by the bits of culture he and others had started there.

Symphonly of not quite 500

Called the Symphony of a thousand (which truly had over 1,000 performers on stage at the American premier), last Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday we performed it with 223 adult chorus members, 36 boys, 45 girls, 8 soloists, the 106 members of the symphony (augmented by an additional harp, an additioal bassoon, 7 antiphonal horns, glockenspiel, harmonium, organ, and mandolin), and a single conductor to keep us all together. The Contra Costa Times has a review in which they count 404 on stage (my count puts us at 420), and called the event "ONE OF THE BAY AREA'S most remarkable, ecstatic, emotionally draining, almost unbelievably thrilling and spectacular (you fill in the adjective) ongoing cultural events of the past several years". Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle had high praise for the chorus, which he said was "singing with hushed intensity and superb balances". He also felt that the "children's choruses were splendidly delivered by Pacific Boychoir and the San Francisco Girls Chorus." Michael Steinberg's program notes from the printed program provide a wonderful introduction to the piece.

Speaking for myself, this is one of my favorite pieces to perform, especially with the San Francisco Symphony & Chorus. From the Chorus Mysticus (a nearly a capella section which the our chorus began singing facing inward, away from the audience), to the thundering finale, there is no other piece with as great a range of dynamics, vocal range, or intensity. And the feeling of singing in finale, with the incredible mass of sound all around you, is amazing and indescribable. (2006-06-05 09:47:55.0) Permalink


	Peter Korn's Weblog The collected occasional commentary by Peter Korn, Accessibility Architect at Sun Microsystems, Inc.

More from the Carroll Center: "Things are Looking Up Re ODF"

CSUN accessibility sessions audio now available

Another ODF accessibility option on Windows: ODF plug-in to MS-Office

From Italian Latin to High Elvish (and Orcish, and...)

Requiem Aeternam

Symphonly of not quite 500