Re: [g-a-devel] [gdm-list] What's the Status of Audio in GDM?

[George Kraft <gkraft gnome org>]

On Mon, 2008-05-05 at 13:17 -0500, Brian Cameron wrote:
> Matthias:
> 
> I'm cc:ing the gnome-accessibility-devel mailing list since they
> are probably the right people to include in this discussion .  I am
> also cc:ing George Kraft since I have spoken with him in the past
> about this issue.
> 
> >> As we've been testing GDM for accessibility support on Fedora 9, we
> >> continue to note the lack of audio support. This means that a screen
> >> reader user has no way to know when it's OK to login.

Fedora for user gdm had an audio permission issue; however, it has
reportedly been fixed.  Perhaps someone could test this?

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=204150

> >>
> >> There is no "beep" on backspace at the Login and Passwd entry. More
> >> seriously still:
> >>
> >> SoundOnLogin=true
> >> SoundOnLoginFile=[some].wav
> >>
> >> in /etc/gdm/custom.conf continues broken.
> 
> Right, the new GDM rewrite does not yet support any audio notifications.
> Some audio notification is very important for letting users know when
> the login screen is ready for input, when a failed login has occurred,
> etc.
> 
> >> Of course we're needing the additional benefit of starting Orca for TTS
> >> via Ctrl-s, Orca with braille via Ctrl-b, etc. I can't comment on
> >> anything other than sound myself, but will be happy to investigate the
> >> other gestures if that's desired. But, what should we expect for sound?
> > 
> > What version are you trying out ?
> > Ray has been fixing the speech support in gdm; and I have had orca read
> > the user list to me, personally.
> 
> I have also tested text-to-speech in the new GDM rewrite and it works
> well.  However, you have to first navigate the GUI to launch the
> feature.  Text-to-speech is often used by blind users, who obviously
> cannot navigate the GUI to first launch Orca.  So this is a real
> problem.
> 
> Keybindings tend to be used by most blind users, while dwell gestures
> are needed by users with mobility issues, or users who can not use the
> keyboard for whatever reason.  For example, a blind user would likely
> want to hit a keybinding to launch orca while a mobility impaired user
> would likely want to use a dwell gesture to launch GOK.
> 
> > If you could compile a list of 'standard' keyboard shortcuts for a11y on
> > the login screen, that would be very useful, and we'll make sure to have
> > them implemented asap.
> 
> I do not believe there are standard gestures or keyboard shortcuts.  I
> discussed this with George Kraft about this about a year ago, and it did
> not seem that there was any clear cross-platform consensus on what
> keybindings or mouse gestures  should be used to launch AT
> functionalities.  Perhaps George can comment further.

I suggest someone try to create a GNOME, GDM, and KDE accessibility
keywoard shortcuts/gestures, then get concensus.  I would not worry
about Windows...

Perhaps someone could start a wiki at http://live.gnome.org/GAP/gestures
and create three columns of what to start which which gestures.  For
example:

=================================================
Action               GNOME      GDM*     KDE
=================================================
gnome-at-visual
gnome-at-mobility
-------------------------------------------------
*global settings for user GDM.

> 
> A few months ago I had a discussion with Jon and Ray about this and
> everyone agreed that it would be best to add general support so that
> the ability to launch AT programs via keybindings and mouse gestures
> is supported in both the login screen and in GDM.  Now that the new
> GDM rewrite uses gnome-settings-daemon, metacity, and other common
> session components, a common interface for launching AT functionality
> should be feasible.
> 
> I filed the following two bugs about this:
> 
> Provide default keybindings for launching AT programs:
> 
>     http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=531596
> 
> Add mouse gesture support for launching AT programs into g-s-d:
> 
>    http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=531595
> 
> Brian

I had opened a similar bug back in 2006.  However, with the new
"gnome-at-visual" and "gnome-at-mobility" commands, then they should be
started instead of directly invoking the ATs.
gnome-default-applications-properties should be used to determine what
is run by those two commands.

http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=387973

http://live.gnome.org/GAP/ScratchPad/PreferredApplications 

-- 
George (gk4)