Not going to let this drop ...

[Tim Chase]

> If anyone who reads this email has anything to offer - time,
> money, equipment, whatever, I'd be *really* grateful to hear
> from them. I can put you in touch with people who know about
> things like the range of interface devices available for
> paraplegic and quadriplegic people. Ideally the program would
> be adaptable to a wide range of hardware accommodating a broad
> spectrum of disability, but many quadriplegics use equipment
> that emulates a standard keyboard and/or mouse, so that would 
> be a great start.

While I don't have too much to offer, I'll pass along what I do have:

A) An OLPC (mostly Python-based kit) project[1] to provide simple 
icons-to-speech that sounds a bit like what you're describing. 
My addition to the thread is about Dasher[2], posted as Gumnos. 
A Dasher-like interface may allow for a greater range of 
expression with minimal "2-axis plus sip-puff" selection.  If I 
were mobility-impaired, I'd use Dasher to communicate & code 
(perhaps even coding Python atoms/tokens as their own entities 
for ease of entry :)

B) There are also groups of folks such as the IGDA (Independent 
Game Developers Association)'s SIG-Access[3] which focuses on 
promoting accessibility in gaming.  Robert Florio[4] is one of 
the folks in the SIG and has a vested interest in improving 
accessibility for mobility-impaired gamers (others on the list 
have particular interests/focii in visual, auditory or mental 
challenges).  I mention this group first because they have some 
innovative solutions for taking existing applications/games and 
either retrofitting accessibility solutions as well as exploring 
new design goals to make applications/games accessible upon 
launch.  Other similar groups exist for things like 
web-accessibility (WCAG WG[5], WAG[6]) but that seems a little 
outside your focus.

Hope this gives you some ideas/connections that help you out.

-tkc


[1]
http://www.olpcnews.com/software/applications/free_icon-to-speech_open-source_speech_for_disabled.html

[2]
http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher/

[3]
http://www.igda.org/wiki/index.php/Game_Accessibility_SIG

[4]
http://www.robertflorio.com

[5]
http://www.w3.org/WAI/PA/

[6]
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/webaccessibility/