GDM accessibility sans AT-SPI

[Henrik Nilsen Omma <henrik ubuntu com>]

Hi all,

Another controversial post to g-a ...

I'm currently looking at GDM accessibility and it strikes me that there 
is a strong case for doing this without using AT-SPI. The themed version 
currently does not work properly with the AT-SPI features and on the 
plain greeter version there is still a fair amount of configuration 
required.

Both the AT-SPI framework and the assistive apps are complex things that 
will need some work to get working Just Right at the login. It also 
takes some time to load. AT-SPI is great for global desktop access since 
adding access to every single app would be silly. However, GDM is *not a 
desktop app* and also has a simple and predictable interface so it makes 
sense to look at other options.

I've written a spec describing a login system with built-in access support.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Accessibility/Specs/GdmAccessLite

This may not be the right way to go but I think we should consider it 
before starting work on fixing the current model.

Henrik