Hi there,
I have been doing a bit of scouting about and asking others about alternatives to thin client. This is an interesting area given that many institutions are in the process of refurbishment or planning new builds, or indeed where merged institutions are looking to synergise their systems.
Here are a few technical comments from people who have come from the IT/network/infrastructure perspectives - might be useful people find themselves engaging with their network staff about this.
Application streaming (Jukebox) solution work better, apps are packaged and delivered as required, but processing takes place on the server. So similar to thin client....but thin client within thin client. It does work well with remote fat clients I've not tried it with thin client, but in theory it should work in the same way that the browser solution would. Software2 have a reasonable offer in this area and a reasonable education presence, Medhurst Dashboard is a javascript modified Server 2012 remote App service that also works well and for a small number of clients would be cheaper to deploy.
AppSense is often used to customise an RDS (thin client) world, it is expensive and anecdotal feedback suggests not really that useful for wholescale deployment, but if the target groups can be focussed - maybe.
Lisa Featherstone (subject specialist access and inclusion) at Jisc also kindly shared a case study from the Royal National College for the Blind (RNC) http://www.rnc.ac.uk/ who have used Application Jukebox/Software2 (see attached PDF) to access their AT across the institution. As far as I know other institutions have used to virtualise their resources (see: http://www.software2.co.uk/).
Regards
Margaret McKay
Subject specialist (accessibility and inclusion) Scotland
Mobile: 07443 984444
Skype: Margaret.Jisc
Twitter: @Mags_McKay
Jisc Scotland, c/o Argyll Court, The Castle Business Park, Stirling, FK9 4TY
jisc.ac.uk
Jisc is a registered charity (number 1149740) and a company limited by guarantee which is registered in England under Company No. 5747339, VAT No. GB 882 5529 90. Jisc’s registered office is: One Castlepark, Tower Hill, Bristol, BS2 0JA. T 0203 697 5800. jisc.ac.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: Assistive Technology interest group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Claire Guthrie
Sent: 24 March 2016 12:09
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Magnification and Citrix Xen Desktop 7.6
Hi
Our new build College is deploying thin client technology. We are wondering whether anyone has resolved magnification issues using the virtual desktop - Citrix Xen Desktop 7.6. Currently we cannot get MAGic, Zoomtext or the docked lens magnifier in the Ease of Access settings to work. We can deploy laptops for our visually impaired students but would rather try and resolve problems on the thin client system if possible.
Kind regards
Claire
|