RE: getting orca included in gnome 2.16

["Friehoff, Thomas" <tf baum de>]

Hello All:

As the Gnopernicus development team we have worked for several years now on
making the GNOME desktop and related applications accessible for blind and
visually impaired users. During that time we witnessed and took part in the
evolution of the GNOME platform, the improvements in development tools, the
introduction of CORBA language bindings for Python, and the ongoing
maturation of GNOME.  We have also followed the investigation into
application-specific customization that has grown into the Orca screen
reader.

Orca, with its radical different coding approach of making applications
accessible, is in its current form more flexible than the original
Gnopernicus design.  This has led us to the conclusion that we should join
forces with Orca.  We don't feel that the development of these two completely
different screen readers / magnifiers is beneficial for the GNOME desktop and
blind and partially sighted computer users.

We support the Orca team's proposal to make Orca the default screen reader /
magnifier on the GNOME desktop in GNOME 2.16 - and for Orca to be the
spiritual and logical successor to Gnopernicus.

This does not mean that we will immediately discontinue the development and
maintenance of Gnopernicus.  We want to assure our current users that
Gnopernicus will continue to be available for and work with the upcoming
releases of the GNOME desktop, while also paving a smooth upgrade path for
those users to Orca. After that period we will gracefully retire the project.

In parallel we will actively support the developments in Orca and we are
looking forward to become substantial contributors to this second generation
screen reader for the GNOME platform.


The Gnopernicus team.