Re: [orca-list] Another Suggestion for OpenOffice/Orca Improvement

[Jason White <jason jasonjgw net>]

On Sun, May 18, 2008 at 12:44:36PM +0530, Krishnakant Mane wrote:
> I know I know, shift and arrows does the trick for keyboard users but
> when even better techniques are already present in other softwares,
> why not use it?
> after reading your ideas janina, I do get a feeling some times that
> gui and related softwares have to a very great extent spoilt the
> generation of computer users.

I think it's more that people who haven't used, and become productive with,
more capable software don't appreciate what they're missing by using less
effective tools for a task. I experienced this when I moved from DOS to Unix
and discovered that the latter was vastly superior.
> this change however will most likely not happen unless the open office
> developers really build up that mindset to do some thing very
> different but very useful at the same time.

There is a Vim plug-in for Eclipse, but not for OpenOffice. Providing basic
keyboard functionality makes the application "accessible" in the narrow sense
that a screen reader user can operate it. However, this doesn't necessarily
make the application efficient to use with a keyboard alone.

I think accessibility efforts need to focus on the higher aim. Alternatively,
this can be accomplished by having different applications available with
different levels of functionality. After all, I'm not tempted to move away
from Vi or Emacs (and from LaTeX), toward a word processor, and I won't be so
tempted unless a new editor comes along that is equally efficient but offers
significant advantages over what I already have. Linux offers me this choice
and will continue to do so.

Having said this, an Emacs or Vi-equivalent keyboard mapping for OpenOffice
would be a major accessibility advance.