Re: Forming an Accessibility Steering Committee

[Brett Clippingdale <brett clippingdale gmail com>]

> Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:42:22 -0500
> From: "Peter Parente" <parente gmail com>
> Subject: Re: Forming an Accessibility Steering Committee
> To: gnome-accessibility-list gnome org
> Message-ID:
> 	<5308fd2c0712201142g145ea37cs5db963091fef6820 mail gmail com>
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>
> Back on the technical side of things, I haven't seen anyone mention
> emerging tech and research in accessibility as topics of interest for
> the committee. While the bleeding edge isn't as important as getting
> accessibility working today for users who need it, it still warrants
> attention for ensuring longevity and innovation in the GNOME
> accessibility stack. For instance, some activities of the committee
> might include:
>
> 1) Staying abreast of trends in technology to ensure GNOME
> accessibility is prepared to handle the "next big thing." There's a
> lot going on in the Web 2.0 / online desktop space. It would be nice
> to have a leg up on accessibility matters when it begins to have a
> large influence on the desktop and GNOME users.
>
> 2) Making sure infrastructure work doesn't preclude advancement. Most
> times, platform improvements open doors to new and interesting uses.
> Still, someone has to be wary of changes that force us to get stuck
> doing only what we need today.
>
> 3) Brainstorming / developing improvements that push the envelope in
> the user experience. It's great to have a set of familiar assistive
> technologies for people to use today when migrating to GNOME from
> other platforms. But a benefit of developing on an open stack with an
> excellent (the best?) accessibility infrastructure is that it affords
> us the opportunity to create alternative, better, more usable, (pick
> an adjective) software to help users. Dasher is a perfect example:
> born out of research and later packaged with GNOME releases as a new
> "flavor" of on-screen keyboard.
>
> Pete

This is exactly right.  Among the many different people who monitor  
this list are the researchers who are developing next-generation  
interfaces.  For example, I'm a PhD student whose primary research is  
intelligent interfaces for the elderly and users with disabilities.   
My development platform of choice is Gnome; without open-source, much  
of my work would be near impossible.

Although I'm trying to imagine next-generation UIs, my goal is to  
make improvements to accessibility in the near future, and  
particularly in Gnome.  Changes to the accessibility stack (such as  
AT-SPI, available features (e.g. MouseTweaks), and even IPC) affect  
my work, so I read this list daily.  If a steering committee is  
formed, I'd like to second Aaron Leventhal's vote for openness  
because, as Pete says above, I want to make sure that "infrastructure  
work doesn't preclude advancement."

Finally, why not dedicate a little thinking time to thinking about  
the future?  We're all doing the best we can just to make a11y work  
today, but let's not keep our heads in the sand lest we get surprised  
by new technologies, as nearly happened with AJAX.  Even better, why  
not dream a little?  If nothing else, it'll help us remember that the  
accessibility platform needs maximum expressiveness to do the things  
nobody has yet imagined.

Brett Clippingdale