Re: [orca-list] Thoughts on a "list of elements" feature for Orca in Firefox

[Steve Holmes <steve holmesgrown com>]

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Sounds good in it its proposed form.  It sounds like something that
could be extended by someone in the future if they wanted to.  You
mentioned the situation of going to say the 150th link; I'm really not
sure how one would quickly get to that specific link given the present
proposed design however.

What I'd probably use more than a link list would be expanded
structural navigation keys to include specifying the type of control
or form element desired.  For example, a form might have 23 edit boxes
and you want to get to the button that follows, you currently would
have to tab through the 23 edit controls first.  It would be nice to
hit a single key to go to the next button or if hotkeys come up short,
we could use a two-key system where the first button specifies "find a
control" and the second would specify the control type.

On Wed, May 21, 2008 at 07:13:57PM +0200, Marco Zehe wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I've given the possible list of elements (for example list of links)
> feature some thought and would like to share it with you all to see what
> you think.
>
> First off, let me clarify that I think Orca could really benefit from at
> least a list of links. Others that are offered by other screen readers,
> such as a list of headings, are not so imminently necessary IMO because
> Orca provides access to these already with structural navigation, both
> by any heading and by certain heading levels. However, a list of links
> has no real equivalent in Orca's structural navigation, and I personally
> find the Firefox search not as effective as I find a list of links when
> I'm on Windows.
>
> So now for the look of the actual list: I would think it makes sense to
> put this into a kind of dialog box that contains a tree table which
> contains the name of the link (screen name, alt or title, whatever
> Firefox provides) in the first column, and the URL in the second column.
> The reason I think an URL should be presented in an easily accessible
> fashion is because there are still enough pages that don't properly mark
> up links, and sometimes the URL is the only reliable way to find out
> what the link is about.
>
> The left and right arrows should move between cells in any given row as
> usual (e. g. in Nautilus' file list view).
>
> When typing in letters, like is usual in Gnome tree tables, a search
> should be performed. When typing and a match is found, Orca should speak
> the result that would be activated. If using braille, Orca should show
> the full link's name (contents of the first column) to the right of the
> cursor  where one types the search. That way, even when only using
> braille, one can read immediately whether the desired link has already
> been found.
>
> ENTER should activate an "Activate link" button, close the dialog, focus
> and activate the link, and thereby let the user navigate to the desired
> destination page.
>
> In addition, a second control, possibly labelled "Focus link", should be
> provided, which allows the user to focus, but not activate, the link
> (for example in order to pull up its context menu). We could also think
> of a keystroke like SHIFT+ENTER or something else that would activate
> this button without having the user to tab to it. Or we could just make
> sure it has an easily rememberable access key.
>
> ESCAPE should close the dialog obviously, without causing any change.
>
> I am not sure we'd need radio buttons to filter by visited, unvisited,
> or all links, or to sort in alphabetical or tab order, as offered by
> other screen readers. I find myself never using these at all. If I want
> to explore the page, I usually do it by reading the page in whole, not
> by simply arrowing through its links. I personally use the links list
> ron pages I know well and know that I want to go to link 150 quickly and
> activate it.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Marco
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