Re: [orca-list] Orca dev resource

[Piñeiro <apinheiro igalia com>]

From: Alex Midence <alex midence gmail com>

> I wonder if someone might point me to a document where I might find
> something detailing how Orca approaches making an app accessible.

Orca is using the accessibility framework right now used on GNOME. You
can take a look here:

http://projects.gnome.org/accessibility/

And specifically:

http://library.gnome.org/devel/accessibility-devel-guide/nightly/

And more specifically:

http://library.gnome.org/devel/accessibility-devel-guide/nightly/gad-how-it-works.html.en

This is a guide for GNOME 2.X, and there will be some changes planned
for GNOME 3.0, but you can take a general idea here.

> I've been curious about this for some time.  I want to understand how
> some things can be accessible to it while others cannot.  The whole QT
> thing has me baffled, for instance.  If QT exposes all its controls
> and such with labels and things as it advertises in their site, how
> does that information elude ORca?  Also, WXwidgets is another thing.

GNOME accessibility is based on at-spi. AT tools like Orca "asks"
at-spi about the apps, his current state, and ask for notifications
when something changes.

On GNOME, most of the apps uses ATK to "talk" with at-spi (the
atk-bridge). So, gtk apps uses atk to expose his information to
at-spi. Then Orca can react to that because at-spi uses that.

QT is not doing that (is not implementing ATK) but a different bridge
was created, although AFAIK, his state was always experimental. More
information here:

http://jpwhiting.blogspot.com/2011/03/its-alive.html

No idea about wxwidgets.

> I've used a few wxwidgets apps in Windows recently and they worked
> pretty well for the most part.  Code::blocks is the latest thing I
> used and it was all right except for the rad tool.  Anyway, when I
> tried it in Gnome, Orca can't read the dialogs well for some reason
> and text entry fields in other things like Geany and even AbiWord
> which is gtk+ don't read back what is input.  Where is the break in
> communication with Orca and the software?  Is there any way to "show"
> Orca how to use other means for getting accessibility information
> besides at-spi?

No, Orca uses at-spi.

>  I'm sorry for all the questions.  I really wish to
> understand.  If there's a page somewhere for me to browse where this
> stuff is explained in a few paragraphs, please let me know.  I'm

I hope previous links would be useful to you.

> learning c++ right now and would like to be able to write some apps
> that I can use cross-platform with a GUI without having to rewrite an
> interface each time I want to use it in another platform.  Gtk+ isn't
> accessible in Windows and wxwidgets isn't great in Linux, and QT is
> spotty in windows but not accessible currently in Gnome.

Yes, this is sad, but AFAIK, right now there is no such a
cross-platform accessibility solution. Anyway, I would be glad to hear
that I'm wrong.

BR

===
API (apinheiro igalia com)