Update on assistive tech for autism

Recently I switched to using Linux. I currently use OpenSuse Linux, I am also going to be installing Ubuntu Linux on my laptop. So I am looking at linux that as the basis for assistive tech software for autistics. It's free (as in freedom) and many distributions are available at no cost. The XO laptop seems like a good platform for assistive tech for autistics (particularly kids). Unfortunately my programming skills are not very good. I plan on playing around with the python programming language. My first project will probably be some text to speech software for autistics. It will run on linux using the festival text to speech engine. Once I get something done with that, I will post an update here.