[orca-list] Gnome and KDE accessibility

[Jason White <jason jasonjgw net>]

On Fri, Mar 14, 2008 at 01:40:50PM +0000, Michael Whapples wrote:
> What I don't want to get involved in is the discussion, as the areas of
> disagreement from what I can tell were to do with what direction it
> should take (KDE don't want to use D-bus and gnome currently have things
> working on corba), which is not something I could helpfully contribute
> to.

The accessibility support that TrollTech implemented and announced last year
used d-bus however, which thus appears to be the direction in which they are
headed in QT 4, unless this has been reconsidered more recently.
> I thought things were slightly different to that, I thought the gnome
> java-access-bridge made java accessible to at-spi, and I thought OO
> implements accessibility through GTK in Linux. If what I have said is
> right, then orca is using at-spi which while could be used outside gnome
> isn't due to its dependency on other gnome components leading to much
> more than a QT/KDE user actually needs/might want.

Mozilla uses ATK. I think OO.O support ATK and ATSPI directly as well now,
instead of working through Java as they once did. I might be wrong though.

In general, I don't understand what ATK gives an application that ATSPI can't,
that is, why it is more advantageous to work through ATK instead of ATSPI
directly on the application side. From what I have read, ATSPI sets up an
accessibility broker that accepts user interface events from applications, and
which makes these available to assistive technologies that have registered to
receive them. If this is right, then ATSPI is ultimately what user interface
components in applications connect to.

> but orca means that now I am able to do about everything I need to in
> Linux).

It also means that I will be able to keep doing everything I need to in Linux,
as I have done for a decade now. With the growing complexity of the Web, lack
of access to rich Internet applications and Web sites that employ client-side
scripts is no longer acceptable. On the positive side, the innovative work on
Aria in Firefox and the strong collaboration between Mozilla and Orca
developers will make this environment the best means of accessing the Web that
is available on any operating system (except possibly for the combination of
Emacspeak and FireVox, which is built largely on the same technology, i.e.,
firefox).
> The comments about solaris was to do with solaris being a Sun product
> and orca being part of the Sun accessibility project (I believe) so
> potentially could be seen in the light of Sun trying to meet legal
> requirements. I don't think that is so, or if it is then they are going
> beyond what some other companies do to meet the requirements. Orca made
> me change my view about the accessibility of Java GUI apps (before orca
> I had only experience on windows using window-eyes which didn't work
> with java at all) and now I think the java accessibility API is about
> the most reliable way of making something accessible across all major
> platforms.

In addition, Sun's Java implementation is now available under the GPL, with
work rapidly underway to replace legally encumbered components. The end result
of this will be that Java finds its way into Linux distributions by default,
as it is now under a free and open licence.

I don't know for sure, but I suspect all of the accessibility support is
included in the GPL version, as Sun developers wrote all of it, so far as I
am aware, and therefore would be entitled to distribute it under this licence
as part of the code release.