Oatsoft proposed content

The wiki might be a good place to discuss and work up content until it is developed enough to add to the oatsoft site. Although the main site is in a CMS, we aim to keep it of high quality which mitigates against developing content on the site itself.

Proposed, though not developed content.

Assistive software

It would be nice to have some descriptions of assistive software with links to external sources all having an open source slant. One aim for the site is to guide users towards finding, choosing and installing software. This could be done through overviews of software types with particular reference to user experiences and non technical help.

Another useful service the site could fulfil is in gathering formal user requirements for proposed software, this is no small undertaking when writing software and, moreover, is the component the developer is least suited to.

  • AT Overviews? perhaps we can describe some assistive technologies, and what they do. With links to recommend OS or free software and user feedback.
  • Comparative reviews and technology discussions are very useful, [http://www.ace-centre.org.uk/html/resources/palmtops/palmtops.html ], do these fall within the scope of OATS? I see these as useful for OATS in that they can help in defining better applications and future directions. One big problem with such reviews is they age quickly, can we add value and stretch the usefulness of such reviews through user feedback?
  • Ideas for assistive software in particular small bespoke applications (scripted).
  • Assistive technology HowTos?, for example, how do I get an on-screen keyboard, or enable text-to-speech? With user submitting and answering such queries, these could have an OS slant. Between us we can think of a dozen little tricks or tools that we use or recommend routinely.
  • Formal requirements, available for comment by the user community. Developers need good specifications for software from the end user perspective; writing and changing software is costly so it is invaluable to have good specifications as early in the process as possible. It is important not to underestimate the amount of work needed in pulling these together, but it is very amenable to a community process.

detailed descriptions of particular application areas and software might be useful