On 11/11/2011 08:34 AM, David Sexton wrote:
Hi David, comments inline.
I am looking for information on what is most
needed to improve gnome accessibility. More programmers? More
funds? More user feedback? Etc.
All of that ;)
I am blind and currently using
orca and mac. I guess I would describe myself as someone
who writes small scripts to get jobs done, but certainly
not a software engineer. I generally prefer the command
line over GUI, but GUI is really necessary for internet
and word processing. Of course, I'd love it more if
orca/gnome were as rock-solid as the command line.
If you are interested in orca, probably you would be also interested
in orca and orca-dev lists (although probably you already know about
it):
https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/orca-list
https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/orca-devel-list
I
am the IT manager at the International Institute for Social
Entrepreneurs in Kerala, South India. www.bwb-iise.org
We take motivated and talented individuals from all over the
world, mainly developing countries, who become active to
create positive social change in their communities. About
half of our participants are blind or have other disabilities.
We use mainly Ubuntu.
FYI, although probably you already know, there is a ubuntu
accessibility list:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/Ubuntu-accessibility
We
have a few things we can offer gnome accessibility:
-
User feedback. We could install latest builds and provide
regular feedback.
Anyway, as this is a GNOME mailing lists, we would be more
interested on GNOME 3.X feedback. Take into account that some
distros are still in the process of moving to GNOME 3.
-
Fund raising. We are connected to quite a few donors who are
generally interested in making a considerate impact in the
developing world.
Completely accessible gnome would enable many people to have
access to computers.
In that case it would be good if you contact GNOME Foundation. The
a11y team is in the process of update the GNOME accessibility
roadmap:
https://live.gnome.org/Accessibility/Roadmap
So any item listed there are suitable to be funded.
-
Since the next IISE course will only start in July 2012, our
campus could be used during the period from mid december to
mid June.
We are planning on hosting a few hackfests to improve
accessibility of software and create new software.
We would love to work on anything gnome accessibility has for
us.
I can definitely get several college hackers
together.
In that sense I can think on different ways to start to collaborate:
* Take a look to Orca "How Can I Help" page:
https://live.gnome.org/Orca/HowCanIHelp
* Other starting task could be "compile all the accessibility stack"
using jhbuild:
https://live.gnome.org/Jhbuild
In that sense the basic pieces for the stack are at-spi2-core,
at-spi2-atk, pyatspi2, orca, accerciser and then any application
toolkit compatible with that stack, for example gtk.
* Related with the feedback, and in order to get familiar with the
code and some of the present issues, you could also take a look to
these links:
https://live.gnome.org/Accessibility/ThreePointFour/Regressions
https://live.gnome.org/Accessibility/ThreePointFour/Issues#Other_GNOME_Modules
Maybe
some programmers from the company "UST global" as well.
I guess what I need to know, is how to get them up to speed on
gnome and gnome accessibility itself.
Myself, I know a bit of python, but nothing at all about how
accessibility is structured…
If
there's not currently a way to employ people directly through
gnome then It could be that we hire some programmers
specifically to work on gnome accessibility… So if you're
experienced in this area and want to work in India, let us
know.
From our viewpoint, we are annoyed that
accessibility is almost there, but not quite good enough to
prevent our participants from returning home and most likely
be forced to use illegal copies of windows and accessibility
software. So our thought is: what can we do to get gnome and
gnome-orca to work as well as windows and mac solutions.
On behalf of all of our visually impaired participants as well
as all of them around the world I want to say THanks very much
for your interest, ideas, suggestions and feedback!
Thanks for your interest, I hope you heard about you again soon.
Best regards.
--
Alejandro Piñeiro Iglesias
|
