Re: Request for comment (accessibility team): release date for GNOME 3.0

[Francesco Fumanti <francesco fumanti gmx net>]

Hi,

Willie Walker wrote:
> The final kicker for GNOME Shell is that it is an actively churning 
> moving target.  The ancient model that the a11y cleanup team will come 
> in afterwards and resolve a11y issues cannot possibly work in this case. 
>  As with every project, I truly believe that accessible design needs to 
> be part of on-going GNOME Shell development by the people developing 
> GNOME Shell.  If we can get that to happen, I'd feel much better, but 
> I'm just not seeing that happen right now.
>
> Right now, I think all I can resign to is that GNOME Shell will be 
> actively churning up to and beyond the GNOME 2.30 code freeze.  We'll 
> then have to somehow try to figure out how to clean up the a11y issues 
> for 2.32, but with no resources.  Based upon past experiences with other 
> teams, I also expect a11y fixes will likely be met with resistance from 
> the GNOME Shell team because the fixes will do two things: 1) draw the 
> team's attention from other work they need to do, and 2) possibly 
> conflict with design choices that could have been done differently had 
> they made a11y part of their earlier design discussions.  Accounting for 
> a11y sooner than later will save time and frustration in the long run.

These two paragraphs make me wonder the following:

- Is there any contact between the GNOME A11y Team and the GNOME Shell 
developers?

- Do the GNOME Shell developers know what properties have to be present 
in the GNOME Shell to make it support a11y? As apparently, the GNOME 
Shell is still a moving target, the sooner the GNOME Shell developers 
know what to take care of, the better it will be for everybody; not only 
for the disabled people requiring assistive tools, but probably also for 
the GNOME Shell itself to have the best chances to become a widely used 
desktop. (Is a11y not a requirement under specific circumstances to be 
even accepted as a candidate for a computer system!?)

Consequently, if it makes sense, maybe somebody with the required 
knowledge should contact the GNOME Shell developers to talk directly 
with them about the a11y in the GNOME Shell and if appropriate, inform 
them about the properties they should take into account during the 
development, or the rest of the development. And by these properties I 
don't mean general guidelines, but very concrete points like complete 
keyboard navigation, complete pointer navigation, specific 
interfaces,... (Please, be aware that I don't really know what the 
necessary properties are; the three points that I gave in the preceding 
sentence are only guesses.)


Cheers

Francesco