[vip_students] Blind ambition: plea for funds to keep free software project alive

From: "Eleanor Burke" <eleanorburke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <vip_students@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2012 13:31:17 -0000

Blind ambition: plea for funds to keep free software project alive
Sylvia Pennington, The Sydney Morning Herald
March 16, 2012

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.
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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-keep-free-software-project-alive-20120316-1v99i.html#ixzz1pMkjCzGh

[vip_students] Blind ambition: plea for funds to keep free software project alive

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