Re: [orca-list] Current State of total Accessible of the Gnome desktop with Orca

[Krishnakant <hackingkk gmail com>]

On Sun, 2010-01-10 at 17:30 +0100, Halim Sahin wrote:
> hi,
> On So, Jan 10, 2010 at 05:36:00 -0700, Keith Hinton wrote:
> > Hi all.
> > For a while I have been comparing the accessibility of Windows and
> > other GUI environments with taht of the Gnome desktop and the Orca
> > screen reader.
> > I understand at some point that Gnome will apparently use Speech-Dispatcher.
> > Well, I have some general questions:
> > 1. Isn't Speech-Dispatcher a dead project now? I have not heard one
> > word from the developers of this program for Linux lately on Speakup's
> > mailing list, or this one.
>
> No!
Infact I think it is maintained well, just that they are not doing some
thing major to break the code.
Given the importance of the project, I think the developers are doing
the right thing.

> > 2. When you compare particular accessibility with Windows and Orca in
> > the Gnome desktop, I am curious why:
> > 1. Why does Orca do some functionality currently different from say
> > JAWS on Windows?
> > I.e. Interacting with a Combobox or opening a listbox with alt-down
> > arrow in Windows is a bit different with Orca.
>
> Why should orca clone jaws?
> +1
And let me ask one common question to every one, Is windows and jaws the
de-facto ISO or any recognised standard to do a certain thing?
I think there are many approaches to do a certain thing, jaws follows
one and orca follows the other.
As long as both approaches work, there is no point having a negative
attitude about a certain approach.
And we learn so many new things small and large on a daily basis. 
> > 2. Does Orca/Gnome developers have any plans on making Skype work at
> > all under the Linux environment?
>
> Not an orca problem.
Free software has freedom to modify, so if you find this a serious
issue, either fix it by yourself, or Get some one to do it.  The beauty
is that you can involve into development either by giving feedback or by
contributing code/ documentation. 
> > 3. Will Orca ever be able to offer a hotkey for the user to redraw the screen?
>
> Orca doesn't need this.
> It doesn't relay on display driver like other screenreaders.
> Refreshing doesn't mean that the screen has to be redrawn.
Yes, this is an example of what I said about coppying or not copying
what others do.
Yu can see that orca has different yet better way of solving some
problem.

> > 4. What is the responsiveness of Gnome-Speech these days? Last I heard
> > it was being compared to that of Speech-Dispatcher due to instant
> > feedback.
> GS will be replaced by speechd.
> GS has one big problem:
> The synths must handle audio output.
> This doesn't work well under linux.
>
> And I hope that with latest versions of libao, we will have the cluttery speech gone.  
> > I am staying away from any of the Linux OS systems due to a lack of
> > VOIP applications, and the fact that although Speakup is good on the
> > Console, I still don't think Orca is yet there.
>
> Now i stop here reading your mail!
> Maybe you should install it on a real machine and try:
> linphone, ekiga, empathy, gajim, pidgin, ......

Me too.
This is typical problem of narrow mindset and lazy evaluation (not the
one done by programming languages, but by people giving feedback on
softwares) :)

I have seen ekiga works well with orca.  Can Some one tell me more about
linphone?  Does it work well with orca?  I would love to use it if it
gives even commandline accessibility.
And yes I think empathy must and *will* improve in accessibility.

Happy hacking.
Krishnakant.