Linux Screen Reader (LSR) is an extensible assisting technology for people with disabilities. The design philosophy behind LSR is to provide a core platform that, 1. enables the development of LSR extensions for improving desktop application accessibility and usability, and2. shields extension developers from the intricacies of the desktop accessibility architecture.The primary use of the LSR platform is to give people with visual impairments access to the GNOME desktop and its business applications (e.g. Firefox, OpenOffice, Eclipse) using speech, Braille, and screen magnification. The extensions packaged with the LSR core are intended to meet this end. However, LSR's rich support for extensions can be used for a variety of other purposes, such as: · Supporting novel input and output methods, such as joysticks, web cams, game pads, audio icons, and environmental sounds. · Creating interfaces for other users, such as people with mobility impairments, people with cognitive impairments, children learning to use a screen reader, and so forth. · Supplementing the graphical GNOME desktop with useful audio feedback for sighted users, such as text-to-speech reporting of events in a monitored window.