Raiden's Realm: AccessApps: The Braveheart Of Computing

AccessApps: The Braveheart Of Computing (Page 1 of 1)

Written by Steve Lawson
Posted on: Jan 30, 2009 at 10:06am
Section: Software
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THERE'S an oft-quoted line in Mel Gibson's rousing, if historically-challenged, blockbuster movie about the Scottish hero, William Wallace. All muddy-faced and wild-haired, Aussie Mel growls in his best faux-Scots accent: "They may take our lives, but they'll never take our FREEDOM!" I'm an Englishman living and working in Scotland and, while that movie causes the Scots some considerable embarrassment, I know it illustrates a passion that runs deep within this small European nation.

Yep, the Scots are big on 'freedom' - and who wouldn't be after centuries of wondering which foppish fool is going to be next to wander over the border, demanding silver, obedience and a night with the clan chief's youngest daughter? But as supporters of Free/Open Source software, we know that freedom comes in many guises. And it's in this context that another much less belligerent group of Scots are doing some wonderful work. Let me tell you about them.

The UK's Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) is a strategic advisory committee working on behalf of the funding bodies for further (FE) and higher education (HE) in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The JISC's job is to promote the innovative use of information systems and information technology in FE and HE across the UK. And it's against this backdrop that we come to AccessApps, which is a computing initiative developed by the Scottish JISC Regional Support Centres.

AccessApps consists of over 50 Open Source and freeware assistive technology applications which can be entirely used from a USB stick on a Windows computer. AccessApps will run without needing to install anything and provides a range of e-learning solutions to support writing, reading and planning, as well as visual and mobility restrictions. Last autumn, I was honoured to take part in the judging for the Scottish Open Source Software Awards 2008 and was equally delighted when AccessApps won the top award for the educational sector.

Apart from the excellence of their product, what really struck the judges was the high level of free support offered by the AccessApp team. You will rarely find a more comprehensive, well thought-out approach to a project of any kind, Open Source or proprietary. A series of short, informative screencasts talk new users through what AccessApps is and does, how to obtain the packages and what to do with them once you have got them. Here's a link to those screencasts - check them out for yourselves and if you're not impressed, I'll be amazed.

But that's not all; the AccessApps team have prepared a number of step-by-step guides in a broad variety of formats. You can find them here. And to top it all off, there's an equally comprehensive FAQ section here. There are three download options for AccessApps.

New users might like to try the Go Lite option first, which is a 64Mb zipped download that contains a 739MB selection of the most popular applications; otherwise, there's The Works which, as its name suggests, contains everything (111MB download unzips to 1.1GB); or a pick 'n' mix option where you choose what you want to include. There is a full list of the applications available here, but for a quick taster, you can get:

Open Office
Freemind - mind-mapping
Sunbird - calendar
DSpeech - text to speech freeware
TheSage - dictionary & thesaurus
Mozilla Firefox - web browser
Artweaver - art package
Audacity - record/edit audio
GIMP - edit images
VLC Media Player
CamStudio Portable
KompoZer - web editor
Scribus - desktop publishing
Wink - desktop recording
7-Zip Portable - file archiver
ClamWin - anti-virus
Sumatra PDF - read PDF documents
TopOCR - convert images to text

I have a 2GB memory stick in my briefcase containing The Works and I can personally testify to its usefulness, particular for those who work in a multi-OS environment or, thanks to its excellent choice of assistive applications, with those hampered by physical disabilities. But beyond the tech-appeal, AccessApps represents something more to me.
It's the spirit with which it was conceived and created which makes this a special project.

The team behind it really believe in the Open Source movement's ability to liberate people from the costly, restrictive bonds of proprietary software. There's no cost involved in using AccessApps, beyond the initial outlay for a USB memory stick - and the price of these has tumbled. Lots of people talk the Open Source talk, but the AccessApps team are walking the walk. I heartily recommend you walk with them.

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