Re: yelp a11y for 2.28 (was Who is using WebKit in GNOME 2.28?)

[Shaun McCance <shaunm gnome org>]

On Sun, 2009-08-23 at 11:54 -0400, Willie Walker wrote:
> Thanks everyone!  Based upon the responses, I think the gap that would
> have no alternative accessible solution would be if yelp chose to ship
> with a WebKit-only solution.
> 
> The unfortunate thing about this is that yelp is quite important for our
> users.  Many of them are coming to GNOME for the first time - some from
> another platform and others because this is their first exposure to a
> graphical desktop.  The documentation available via yelp helps these
> users find their way through important information, such as keyboard
> access, customization for fonts/colors/icons, how to use a specific
> application, etc.
> 
> Making documentation inaccessible or otherwise very difficult to obtain
> is a serious regression.  It would be something that could potentially
> keep new users away from GNOME and push existing ones back to the
> platforms they came from.
> 
> In other words, access to documentation is a critical component of the
> GNOME platform.
> 
> So...I'd like to appeal to the yelp developers to keep the accessible
> solution turned on by default for 2.28 while we continue our work
> towards WebKit a11y for GNOME 3.0.

Done.  Yelp 2.28 will use Gecko.

Willie, I have a number of documentation-related things I'd
like to discuss with some accessibility experts.  Two things
come to mind right now, but I know there's more:

1) We'd like to make the HTML output of our documentation
better for screen readers, including having aural CSS rules
if those would help.  But without accessibility experts, I'd
just be guessing.

2) With the new topic-based Mallard help, it will be possible
for us to tailor help to individual users better.  I'd like
to talk to some accessibility people about what help topics
we should provide for accessibility, and how we might be able
to detect that users are using accessibility tools and make
those topics more discoverable to those users.

Could we do an IRC meeting some time with my team and yours?
Or perhaps we could have a face-to-face.  Will you be at the
Boston Summit?

--
Shaun