Sun Microsystems Brings GNOME Desktop to People with Disabilities

Sun Microsystems announced it will establish an Accessibility Technologies Lab to work on technology development for people with disabilities. The lab will develop an assistive technologies framework for utilities, device drivers, and voice interaction capabilities for the upcoming GNOME 2.0--a free, open-source, and easy-to-use user environment. Sun also announced it will be working with the GNOME Foundation to establish the GNOME Foundation accessibility development fund that will be used to provide grants for projects that provide research and that develop assistive technology for the GNOME user environment. The lab is scheduled to begin its work with the GNOME community before the end of calendar year 2000, with the goal of having the GNOME Accessibility Project available in GNOME 2.0.