Re: [g-a-devel] Status of IBM a11y

[Jason White <jasonw ariel its unimelb edu au>]

On Sat, Jun 02, 2007 at 10:26:50AM +0200, krister kristersplace ws wrote:
> The only thing i can say in this matter is that i'd love to help out and if only i was a 
> programmer i gladly would but i'm not.

There are, however, other ways of contributing to the community:

1. Test the software and report bugs. The more you learn about the software,
the better you will become at reporting bugs intelligently, in ways that make
it easier for the software developers to find and fix them.

2. Answer questions on mailing lists and contribute to mailing list
discussions.

3. Encourage people you know to become involved in using or developing the
software.

4. Write user-oriented documentation: "how to" guides, FAQ ("Frequently Asked
Questions") documents, or just explanations that may help others to use the
software.

5. If you have friends with accessibility needs, you could teach them to use
free and open-source software that is relevant to them.

6. Learn Python! This is the scripting language used by Orca, and there is
good documentation available on the Web. I haven't learned Python in depth as
yet for lack of time, but when I do find time I think it will be a good
investment. From what I have read, Python should be fairly easy to learn -
easier than C, for instance, which I already know. I think Python would be
easier for someone without any previous programming experience. In any case,
having learned it you can write Orca scripts.

7. Become involved in technical standard-setting activities relevant to
free/open-source software or the Web, and accessibility.

Obviously, it isn't possible to do all of the above, and I am sure there are
other ways of contributing that I haven't considered. Do as few, or as many,
of these as time allows, and decide which ones are of greatest interest to
you, then concentrate on those.