Re: Braille printing for conferences - connection with Guadec?

[Sanne te Meerman <sanne opensourceadvies nl>]

I've just subscibed to this mailinglist, so to avoid being off-topic, 
I've made a subthread.

I was immediately triggered by this subject and conversation. I am 
trying to involve Dutch national governemnt with Guadec (I'm part of the 
dutch team of organisers). Focus on accessibility and usability can draw 
attention for several reasons, in my opinion:
-attention on policy issues instead of technique is important. 
Accessibility and usability are issues that ring with policymakers (more 
than technique)
-Government is more inclined to have attention to these subjects than 
i.e. companies because of political attention and pressure to these issues.
-the bottom-up development of open source might be the best way to 
connect with the personal itches of disabled people. The industry 
involved therefore might have an advantage to more traditional ICT 
companies in this niche market.

It might be good to have some sessions about usability and accesebility 
during Guadec. I will propose that. Any other suggestions? Maybe there 
is some documentation about Gnome and targeting the government market, 
that someone can point me to. That would be helpful.

thank you,
Sanne te Meerman

Brian Cameron schreef:
> Willie/Dave:
>
> It might also be nice to highlight the humanitarian aspects of
> accessibility a bit more.  For example, I think it would be nice to
> highlight something about the GNOME accessibility community.  Perhaps
> something about the fact that a number of people with disabilities
> participate in development and in user forums.  I think the promise of
> joining a community of people working to address accessibility usability
> issues is attractive to highlight.
>
> If that wouldn't make it too long, and you agree.
>
> Brian
>
>
> > Thanks Dave!  Something about the "specialised hardware to interact 
> > with applications" portion seems odd to me.
> >
> > In GNOME, we have a core value that people with disabilities have 
> > free compelling access to the graphical desktop and web. GNOME 
> > accomplishes this with full keyboard access, theming, and an industry 
> > leading accessibility infrastructure that is used by built-in 
> > assistive technologies including a screen reader, magnifier, and on 
> > screen keyboard.  With a model of "built in" versus  "bolted on", 
> > GNOME not only has free compelling accessibility today, but it also  
> > provides a
> > rich and stable base for future accessibility  work.
> >
> > or... (I just took my first stab at this and added "by people with 
> > disabilities" to the first sentence):
> >
> > In GNOME, accessibility by people with disabilities is a core value 
> > that touches all aspects of the system. With a model of "built in" 
> > versus  "bolted on", the GNOME Accessibility project has helped lead  
> > the industry in accessible design. From the infrastructure, to the 
> > graphical toolkit, to the applications, to the assistive 
> > technologies, accessibility has been a central consideration from the 
> > very early days. As a result, GNOME not only has compelling 
> > accessibility today, but it also  provides a
> > rich and stable base for future accessibility  work.
> >
> > Will
> >
> > On Dec 8, 2009, at 5:27 PM, Dave Neary wrote:
> >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > Shorter would be better, I think.
> > >
> > > How about this (pure edit, no additions):
> > >
> > > In GNOME, making sure that people with disabilities can use our 
> > > software
> > > is a core value. From infrastructure allowing our built-in screen 
> > > reader
> > >  or specialised hardware to interact with applications to utilities to
> > > make it easier for people with motor problems to interact with a
> > > computer, accessibility in GNOME is built-in, not bolted on. As a 
> > > result
> > > GNOME not only has compelling accessibility today, it also provides a
> > > rich foundation for the future.
> > >
> > > How does that read? Covers all the bases, I think - a11y is a core
> > > value, what does accessibility mean, and how do we make things easier
> > > for people with disabilities. Maybe needs a quick fact check on the
> > > second sentence (it is at-spi that lets Orca do its thang, isn't it?)
> > >
> > > Cheers,
> > > Dave.
> > >
> > >
> > > Willie Walker wrote:
> > > > Here's a bunch of run-ons... :-)
> > > >
> > > > In GNOME, accessibility by people with disabilities is a core value 
> > > > that
> > > > touches all  aspects of the system. With a model of "built in" versus
> > > >  "bolted on", the GNOME Accessibility project has helped lead  the
> > > > industry in accessible design. From the accessibility 
> > > > infrastructure, to
> > > > the graphical toolkit, to the applications, to the assistive
> > > > technologies, accessibility has been a central consideration from the
> > > > very early days of GNOME. As a result, GNOME not only has compelling
> > > > accessibility today, but it also provides a rich and stable base for
> > > > future accessibility work.
> > > >
> > > > Today, users have built-in keyboard navigation, highly customizable
> > > > fonts/colors/icons, keyboard enhancements such as StickyKeys, the
> > > > MouseTweaks tool that provides mouse clicking features by dwelling, 
> > > > the
> > > > GOK on screen keyboard that can be driven via dwell clicking and
> > > > switches, the Dasher predictive text entry tool, and the Orca screen
> > > > reader and magnifier. Developers also have the glade-3 tool that helps
> > > > encourage accessible user interface design and the accerciser tool 
> > > > that
> > > > helps developers analyze how their application is exposed to the
> > > > built-in accessibility infrastructure.  For tomorrow, the GNOME 
> > > > project
> > > > is busily working on enhancing the on screen keyboard and magnifier,
> > > > developing ways to use web cameras to move the mouse based upon
> > > > head/body position, and making the solution much more friendly to
> > > > resource constrained devices such as netbooks and the OLPC.
> > > >
> > > > Will
> > > >
> > > > On Dec 8, 2009, at 1:08 PM, Stormy Peters wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Looks good.
> > > > >
> > > > > Can we add a sentence or two about what accessibility is or give some
> > > > > examples of the technology?
> > > > >
> > > > > Stormy
> > > > >
> > > > > On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 11:07 AM, Willie Walker
> > > > > <William Walker sun com> wrote:
> > > > > > Here's a quick snippet I might propose:
> > > > > >
> > > > > >  In GNOME, accessibility is a core value that touches all  
> > > > > > aspects of
> > > > > > the system. With a model of "built in" versus  "bolted on", the 
> > > > > > GNOME
> > > > > > Accessibility project has helped lead  the industry in accessible
> > > > > > design. From the infrastructure, to the graphical toolkit, to the
> > > > > > applications, to the assistive technologies, accessibility has 
> > > > > > been a
> > > > > > central consideration from the very early days. As a result, GNOME
> > > > > >  not only has compelling accessibility today, but it also  
> > > > > > provides a
> > > > > > rich and stable base for future accessibility  work.
> > > > > >
> > > > > >  Will
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > >  On Dec 8, 2009, at 12:58 PM, Stormy Peters wrote:
> > > > > >
> > > > > > >  Paul Cutler and Denise Walters were working on that part so
> > > > > > > hopefully one of them will chime in.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > >  It'd probably be good to ask the a11y team for a short summary to
> > > > > > > put there though.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > >  Stormy
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > >   On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 8:34 PM, Ben Konrath <ben bagu org> wrote:
> > > > > > > >   On Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 4:03 PM, Stormy Peters <stormy gnome org>
> > > > > > > > wrote:
> > > > > > > >   <snip>
> > > > > > > > > Accessibility:
> > > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > > [photgraph of user interacting with A11Y tools]
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > >  Is there a reason why there is no text for this section? Did 
> > > > > > > > you guys
> > > > > > > >   not have time to write something up during the meeting or was it
> > > > > > > > lost
> > > > > > > >   in a cut 'n paste? :-) I'm really just wondering what's up 
> > > > > > > > just so I
> > > > > > > >   know if this is something the a11y team needs to write up if 
> > > > > > > > we go
> > > > > > > >   ahead with the Braille handouts.
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > >   Cheers, Ben
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > >  marketing-list mailing list
> > > > > > > marketing-list gnome org
> > > > > > > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list
> > >
> > > --
> > > Dave Neary
> > > GNOME Foundation member
> > > dneary gnome org