what wouldbe the most blind friendly distribution of linux

[Kyle]

So far, Vinux is about the best blind-friendly distro out of the box. 
It's based on Ubuntu, so has access to all the same apps and 
repositories, but many blind-friendly options including detection of 
Braille displays are set by default. It even has a keyboard shortcut 
that brings up a list of all available keyboard shortcuts and mouse 
button functions by typing control-shift-K. Coming from Ubuntu myself, 
the major changes in some of the keyboard shortcuts and mouse button 
functions, such as the keyboard command to toggle window maximization 
state and the mouse buttons used to zoom the screen I'm used to are a 
bit of a turn-off for me, but you should have no trouble using an 
out-of-the-box Vinux install.

As for what speech software to use, Vinux includes everything you need 
on the CD, including a speaking installer when you decide to fully take 
the plunge.

The only thing I'm unsure about is the Braille display. Having no 
experience with the displays you mentioned, I will defer to someone else 
to tell you if they work on Vinux, which does come preloaded with 
Brltty, Orca and Speakup.

As for OpenOffice, which is your software for working with Word 
documents, ETC., It's included on the DVD and I believe the USB images, 
but not on the CD. Note that currently, this means that if you have a 
64-bit computer, which is nearly any computer sold within the past year 
or so, you will need to install OpenOffice separately using the Easy 
Install Office script, located on your desktop or in your main menu. 
Hopefully, a 64-bit DVD image will become available for future versions 
of Vinux.

For other blind-friendly options, I still highly recommend Ubuntu 
itself. It's a nice, clean user-friendly distro out of the box, and 
pressing a few keystrokes, namely enter, F5, 3, and then enter twice, 
gives you a talking desktop along with an installer. Note, however, that 
Speakup is not included on the Ubuntu CD or DVD, so if you want complete 
speaking console access, you would need to install and build the Speakup 
source from the apt repository. I've also read that stock Debian and 
Fedora are also rather blind-friendly, but I myself haven't worked with 
Debian in several years and haven't worked with Fedora in even more 
years. I would definitely recommend Vinux or Ubuntu for someone who is 
just starting to use Linux and is blind or vision impaired.

~Kyle