Re: the keyboard accessibility capplet

[earl johnson <Earl Johnson sun com>]

Hi,

I'm not on this alias so please make sure your replies include my email
- earl johnson sun com

This is re-run feedback from me but I think the capplet should be a
tabbed pane with 2 tabs - one tab for StickyKeys, MouseKeys, and
ToggleKeys; the other a keyboard response tab containing RepeatKeys,
BounceKeys, and SlowKeys. This sure would go a long way in reducing the
capplet's current clutter and make the interface easier to use (e.g.
the individual range setting controls wouldn't have to be so small).

> >  - the title says "AccessX" which is UNIX-workstation-cruft
> >    terminology.
> 
> It does looks a little ugly, but 'accessx' is a long-standing and
> well-understood term in the accessibility community.  Having it only
> show up in the window title was a compromise; nobody looks in window
> titles anyway :)  Perhaps this could go away after a few releases when
> people have made the connection, but I guess we'll always be getting new
> users from other desktops, hopefully!

EJ	AccessX is long standing in the X and Linux realm but the real
	portion that is inherited cruft is Access*. The other names
	this group of features are known as is AccessPak (Msoft's
	name), AccessDOS (for DOS), and I forget what Apple calls it
	(tho I don't remember it having the crufty Access name in it).
	As further background, the X and DOS were chosen to signify the
	platform they ran on. Following this thought, if a new name is
	desired maybe it could be called AccessG where the G signifies
	GNOME. Or, just playing, AccessGeeWhiz.

	But staying with AccessX as Calum suggests shouldn't cause
	problems because most users on the Unix, Linux, and Windows
	platforms know what AccessX is or recognize that Access* means
	this is where they find the features AccessX and others provide.

>
 
> >  - the "enable keyboard accessibility" checkbox is bad; most users
> >    here will interpret it to mean "make my keyboard work" and wonder
> >    why they would uncheck it.
> > 
> >    Also, there is no reason why you can't just check or uncheck the
> >    four specific checkboxes (mouse keys, bounce keys, etc.) as you
> >    have to do on Windows XP, especially given the need to trim the
> >    size of this control panel. You don't need the save-myself-a-couple
> >    clicks extra checkbox that has an unclear label.
> 
> This is a possibility I guess.  One problem you would get with doing it
> this way is when the "turn off when unused for n seconds" feature kicked
> in, there would be no quick way of turning it back on again.
> 
> Unfortunately the rationale for some of these features has been lost in
> the mists of time-- they've been in AccessX for years. (Perhaps Earl can
> remind us of some of them-- cc'ing him). We would definitely need to run
> that sort of feature change past the accessibility community before we
> could go ahead with it.
> 
EJ  On "enable keyboard accessibility"
	AccessX features are supposed to be invokable from any system.
	This is great in public and collaborative environments for
	people who need its features - no matter where they go they can
	make the right keypresses and turn on AccessX features without
	having to open up the AccessX interface (which would be
	impossible for someone who can't use a mouse). But this power
	sucks for those who don't need the features and use
	applications that cause this user to inadvertantly invoke a
	feature (e.g. shoot-em-up games regularly use left and right
	shift keys to control guns, etc.). So "enable keyboard
	accessibility" was added to let the user who didn't need
	AccessX features prevent the system from turning on a feature
	inadvertantly from the keyboard (e.g. it prevents 5 taps on the
	Shift key from invoking StickyKeys).

	Window's added an additional feature along these lines that
	AccessX never had - it posts a popup the first time any feature
	is invoked from the keyboard and asks the user then if they
	want to fully disable keyboard accessibility. This would be a
	good thing to see added to the GNOME desktop.

    On "turn off when unused for n seconds"
	Public environments such as libraries need to provide systems
	that all users can access. But they typically can't afford to
	purchase machines that only people with disabilities can use -
	they want/need each system they purchase to be usable by all
	users. So while AccessX helps places like libraries minimize
	the number of systems they need to purchase, problems will
	abound for people without disabilities who use a system after a
	person who has turned on an AccessX feature leaves without
	turning the feature off. The auto turn off feature turns off
	all AccessX feature after a specified period of keyboard
	inactivity and was introduced to prevent this problem.

Earl