Re: 2.6 proposed module: dasher

[Bill Haneman <Bill Haneman Sun COM>]

> If the GNOME accessibility team say that they need it, and that they plan to
> integrate it into the whole set of accessibilty tools, then the release-team
> is likely to just say "OK, you're the experts". However, as a sanity check,
> I would like to know that somebody is actually getting some benefit from it
> already, so it's not just a theoretical thing.
>  
Well, the project has a long history - according to the homepage since 1997.
But dasher+GNOME open up lots of new possibilities for the technology, 
and the Dasher
team has actively been pursuing better GNOME integration - in part as I 
understand it
because GNOME makes it possible for Dasher to do more than other platforms.

Unlike most assistive technologies, it works well with complex languages 
like
Japanese (GOK can theoretically work with Japanese but for some users 
Dasher would
be a much better option), and it and its documentation are available in 
multiple
languages already.  So it comes to GNOME as a well-formed, mature 
project with lots
of translations and capabilities already.

In terms of how it fits into our overall accessibility 'toolbox', it 
fills an important gap.  It also
has potential uses for non-disabled users.  I think its areas of overlap 
with GOK are small, and it's distinctive enough in the way that it works 
that I wouldn't worry about redundancy.  Unless there's something about 
its footprint (in the
packages) that I don't realize, I don't see why it doesn't merit 
inclusion as one of our accessibility tools.

- Bill

> Murray Cumming
> www.murrayc.com
> murrayc usa net
>