X.Org work on accessibility

["Brant A. Cheikes" <bcheikes mitre org>]

Greetings,

I am leading a task force on accessibility (to information technology,
for persons with disabilities) in X.Org, the "standard bearer" of the X
Window System.  We have recently begun to discuss adding support at the
Xlib layer (approximately) to permit toolkits to expose an interface
that would enable, e.g., screen readers and other forms of assistive
technology to be developed for applications built on X.  Currently we
have an implementation that is (too) specific to Motif, and we would
like (a) to re-specify it in a toolkit neutral manner, and (b) foster
adoption by toolkit developers.  (That's an oversimplification, but
adequate for now.)

So I'm writing to you, virtual hat in virtual hand, to ask whether
anyone out there has interest in pursuing this in any form, and whether
there's already work going on in accessibility related to toolkits such
as GTK.

Although I'm leading this work in X.Org, I see it as having relevance to
anyone building toolkits on the X Windows platform.  I'd like to
identify all those interested in participating (at any level) in this
development, or, if a similar effort is already well underway within the
GNOME or GTK communities, I'd like to get connected to it.  Any advice,
pointers, etc., would be appreciated.

Let me leave you with a couple of relevant pointers:

X.Org homepage at: http://www.x.org

(Now moribund) Disability Action Committee for X:
http://trace.wisc.edu/world/computer_access/dacx/

An interesting paper on X-Windows accessibility:
http://trace.wisc.edu/docs/x_win_disability/x_disabl.htm

Best regards,
/Brant Cheikes