Blind people unable to install Guix System

Blind people unable to install Guix System

[Simen Endsjø]

It was brought to my attention that blind people runs into problems installing
Guix System, while Debian and Arch have solved this better.

The problem is outlined by the user k.g.roberts, ref
<https://im-in.space/@bubstance/110805249670354167>:

      The installer for Guix System 1.4.0 is basically the same as I remember it from
      a few years ago; boots almost immediately into an ncurses menu for locale
      selection and it takes another few screens to get to the option for a shell. No
      other assistive technologies built into the installer itself outside of what’s
      in the kernel, so a blind installation is doable over a remote connection after
      that point, but would likely be a hassle to get going without additional help
      from a sighted person.

Dave Dude mention a solution, ref <https://4bear.com/@wx1g/110806497343739940>:

      They’d need to add a console screen reader, like Fenrir or ESpeakup to the
      installation image, then have something to type, on the boot command line, to
      start the reader. Debian has done this, on its installation images for a long
      time. Arch now does something like this, too. Thanks for looking into this!

I’m not the right person to do something like this, just thought I should report
it in case it’s easy to fix.

bug#64987: Blind people unable to install Guix System

[宋文武 via Bug reports for GNU Guix]

Simen Endsjø <simendsjo@gmail.com> writes:

> It was brought to my attention that blind people runs into problems installing
> Guix System, while Debian and Arch have solved this better.
>
> The problem is outlined by the user k.g.roberts, ref
> <https://im-in.space/@bubstance/110805249670354167>:
>
>       The installer for Guix System 1.4.0 is basically the same as I remember it from
>       a few years ago; boots almost immediately into an ncurses menu for locale
>       selection and it takes another few screens to get to the option for a shell. No
>       other assistive technologies built into the installer itself outside of what’s
>       in the kernel, so a blind installation is doable over a remote connection after
>       that point, but would likely be a hassle to get going without additional help
>       from a sighted person.
>
> Dave Dude mention a solution, ref <https://4bear.com/@wx1g/110806497343739940>:
>
>       They’d need to add a console screen reader, like Fenrir or ESpeakup to the
>       installation image, then have something to type, on the boot command line, to
>       start the reader. Debian has done this, on its installation images for a long
>       time. Arch now does something like this, too. Thanks for looking into this!
>
> I’m not the right person to do something like this, just thought I should report
> it in case it’s easy to fix.

Hello, I CC this email to bug-guix to open an issue now.

Thank you for the report!

Re: Blind people unable to install Guix System

[Simon Tournier]

Hi,

On Mon, 31 Jul 2023 at 19:57, Simen Endsjø <simendsjo@gmail.com> wrote:

> It was brought to my attention that blind people runs into problems installing
> Guix System, while Debian and Arch have solved this better.

Thank you for the report.

Well, this topic could fit a Google Summer of Code project. :-)

As a project we should invest resource, it appears to me important to
smooth the user-experience in this area.

Cheers,
simon