Re: Orca outputCharAttributes is speech only?

[Peter Korn <Peter Korn Sun COM>]

Hi Joanie,
> > Orca currently has a succinct and a verbose Braille mode.  For a 
> > deaf-blind user (or some other use cases), a "Braille exclusive" mode 
> > might be interesting, where the Braille user interface is driven as if 
> > it is the only output modality.
> >     
>
> Conceptually I find it an interesting possibility, but I'm not quite
> wrapping my head around it yet. Perhaps if you elaborate with some
> hypothetical examples?  
>
> Would "Braille exclusive" mode essentially be a third level of braille
> verbosity -- and one that could still be chosen by individuals who use
> speech yet also desire that detailed information in braille?  And if you
> are NOT in "Braille exclusive" mode, what sorts of things would only be
> presented via speech?

This thought came to me remembering our old outSPOKEN for Windows work, 
where a customer/programmer built a Braille output layer designed for a 
Braille-only user.  This programmer, working with our user-expert Josh 
Miele, did a number of innovative things in Braille including using 
non-Braille dot patterns to indicate buttons and checkboxes (dots 123478 
for a "left bracket" and dots 145678 for a "right bracket"), as part 
making a Braille-focused/only screen reader. 

So, I toss it out for the Orca user/experts on this list to consider.  
With all of the work on Personas for Orca, perhaps a deaf-blind persona 
might be a useful use case to design for.  Output for such a user might 
also be attractive for a "Braille-heavy" user or not; I dunno. 


Regards,

Peter Korn
Accessibility Architect,
Sun Microsystems, Inc.