CAPTION: NVDA co-creator James Teh at the Young Australian of the Year 2012 ceremony. Two Australian programmers may be forced to abandon their not-for-profit work that allows blind people around the world to join in social networks and the information age if funding is not forthcoming. Twenty-seven year old James Teh and his co-developer Michael Curran have spent the past four years building the open source screen reader Non Visual Desktop Access (NVDA) for the Windows operating system. The reader is free, available in 20 languages and has been downloaded more than 45,000 times since November. The NVDA program can translate whatever the cursor touches into synthetic speech, enabling blind users to hear what the rest of the population is able to read on the screen. Advertisement: Story continues below Although similar readers are available commercially, they can cost several hundred dollars to install and upgrade; a sum which is beyond the reach of many vision impaired users, Teh said. "We've had a lot of positive feedback that it's changed lives, especially in the developing world," Teh said. "Users have a sense of gratitude for the system - for access to things not previously accessible." Many blind people have not had access to free screen reader technology in Australia outside educational settings and this has impeded their ability to interact socially and look for jobs, he said. The unemployment rate among blind and vision-impaired people wanting to work is currently 63 per cent, according to research from Vision Australia. Given the ways in which technology could transform the lives of the blind, it was imperative that barriers to entry were made as low as possible, Teh said. As well as providing access to vast reserves of information not previously available in bulky Braille tomes or audio form, the internet can open up a world of services which make tasks of daily living such as shopping and banking easier. Being able to participate in social networking also allows blind people to expand their contact with friends, family and the wider world. "Technology for everyone has become part of daily life," Teh said. "If it is critical for sighted people, it's much more critical for blind people." Himself blind since infancy due to retinal cancer, Teh is no stranger to the obstacles faced by the vision impaired when attempting to lead a regular, independent life. A talented pianist and passionate programmer from a young age - "it's mostly text so you don't need to see it" - he completed mainstream schooling at Brisbane's Nudgee College before graduating with a degree in IT from Queensland University of Technology in 2005. A first job as a programmer with local internet security entrepreneur Trent Davis at Netbox Blue followed, before he joined forces with Curran in 2008. Ensuring the NVDA reader keeps pace with the upgrade cycle of major software packages is a full time job for the pair. But despite attracting a swag of accolades, including an ABC New Inventors award in 2010 and a spot for Teh on the 2012 finalists list for Young Australian of the Year, funding to continue the work has been hard won and precariously retained. The pair received modest funding from Microsoft, Adobe and Yahoo in the past and the Mozilla Foundation continues to provide ongoing support but they are seeking a larger commitment to continue developing and updating the software to keep up with the upgrade cycle of major programs. Teh says they need $200,000 to cover overheads and provide themselves with a modest living wage. Unless further backing was secured, Teh said it was likely he would have to look for other work later this year to support his family. "I would love to continue what I do and am really driven to do it," Teh said. "A free screen reader for Windows does need to exist. It's disappointing that there's not much funding for the work at all in Australia. It's very difficult to raise money when you don't have experience in the not-for-profit sphere and no one dedicated to doing it." SOURCE http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/business-it/blind-ambition-plea-for-funds-to-ke ep-free-software-project-alive-20120316-1v99i.html#ixzz1pMkjCzGh -- I am using the free version of SPAMfighter. We are a community of 7 million users fighting spam. SPAMfighter has removed 9641 of my spam emails to date. Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len The Professional version does not have this message =========================================================== The vicsireland mailing list To unsubscribe at any time send a mail to: vicsireland-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe", without the quotes in the subject of the message. To contact the moderator send mail to: tim.j.culhane@xxxxxxxxx For mor information on the Visually Impaired Computer Society visit: http://www.vicsireland.org