Re: [orca-list] [Kde-accessibility] Menu bar in qt apps in Ubuntu Precise

[hackingKK <hackingkk gmail com>]

hi Alex,
Thanks a million for your detailed reply.
I will reply you with an equally detailed response off the list about 
the server hosting etc, but right now I would just summarize my response 
as briefly as possible so as to make it precise (can't help the pun ).
Firstly, I will be more than happy too test the vertual machine.
When you say that kde accessibility is in its nascent stage, it means 
there is plenty of schope for improvement and a plethora of opportunities.
There are a number of things that need programming as well as testing.
I have a very good team of programmers who are really interested and 
more than willing to code in the field of accessibility.
By coincidence Orca is in Python and our entire team works on projects 
based on Python itself.
They are full time users of linux and work closely with me so they 
understand the problems faced by blind people with regard to desktop 
accessibility.
So we all can contribute to this effort.
I have wrote to the Orca list before with this request   and asked for 
some starting point and detailed guideline, without any concrete response.
I hope at least this time we will be able to do our modest part for 
accessibility development..
I have some server space which  I will confirm and let you know if it 
can be used for hosting this ISO.
Further more, the government in India has some funds reserved for foss 
based accessibility.
They have been asking me if we can have a funded team to work 
dedicatedly on Orca.
If we get some proper starting point, I can present a proposal and have 
a team similar to what Sun used to have in the good old days, or even 
better!
Alex, can you or some one contact me off the list?
Then I can reply in more preside
@Joanie, it will be great if you dive in and suggest some important 
aspects to this.
May be we can discuss the official stuff off the list as I might need to 
share some information which is not supposed to be sent on a mailing list.
Awaiting a detailed reply.
Thanks
Happy hacking.

On 05/03/12 11:32, Alex Midence wrote:
> Hi, Krishnakant
>
> Please see my responses to your questions inline in the quoted message
> below.  Be warned, it's rather long.
>
>
> Thanks.
>
> Alex M
>
>
>
> On 3/4/12, hackingKK<hackingkk gmail com>  wrote:
> > Hi Alex,
> > If you are intending to make a virtual machine available, I would be
> > interested in testing it.
> Great!  That's the idea, actually.  Thank you for being willing to do
> so.  The more of us get in on this sort of thing, the better we are
> able to provide useful and constructive feedback to those who are
> working so hard on improving accessibility in these areas.
>
> > Will you provide a virtual hard disk which I can put into a virtual box
> > and run it/
> Not virtualbox.  I don't use it.  I use VmWare so, the virtual machine
> is in vmware format.
>
> > I use Ubuntu 11.04 and will be shifting to 12.04 in most cases.
> > would you suggest giving KDE and qt apps a try for production use?
> No.  As of right now, accessibility in them is still in the beginning
> stages so, I do not recommend them for production use.  This is why
> I'm proposing a virtual machine and not an iso people can install.
> What I am making is absolutely *not* to be used as somebody's primary
> desktop.  It is intended to provide people with a platform on which to
> test qt applications and also to explore KDE, XFCE, Unity and Gnome
> along with all associated applications.  As a testing system, I think
> it's quite good.  As a production system, it is far too close to the
> bleeding edge, massively bloated and in dire need of being slimmed
> down with redundant applications uninstalled.  It's not even using a
> stable Linux distribution but, a testing version of Ubuntu Precise
> scheduled for release in April.
>
> Having said that, I bet it won't be long at all before KDE aps can be
> used for production because a lot of work is being done on them in
> this area.  There's a mentorship program that will go into effect this
> summer for people who use assistive technology to provide developers
> feedback and guidance in omptimizing accessibility for KDE and its
> apps in this regard.  If you are wanting to start using these apps for
> production use quickly, I suggest you reach out to them and offer your
> assistance as I'm sure you have a lot to offer being a long time Orca
> user as you are.
>
> > Further I also have a question on accessibility of various apps.
> > I wish to know if I can use libre office, firefox, and other apps with
> > the same accessibility like that of gnome with orca?
> I've been focusing my attention on native qt apps so, I don't know.  I
> imagine they work just the same from KDE as they do from Gnome insofar
> as accessibility is concerned.  I don't think they turn into qt apps
> while run from there or something but, I am no expert so, I could be
> wrong.
>
> > Further more, is VlC going to be accessible?
> I haven't tried vlc yet.  I've tried Amarok media player and found it
> fairly accessible.  Download the vm when I make it availalbe and try
> it out.  I'm personally partial to Rhythmbox as my music player but I
> rather liked Amarok.
> <snip>
>
> > Also interesting will be to see if programming tools like eclipse are
> > accessible on KDE desktop with qt apps.
> Eclipse is not qt-based.  It's an swt-based application written in
> pure Java which uses the gtk+ port of swt to render its widgets in
> x-windows.  I would be greatly surprised to find that it has been
> affected in any way by qt apps being accessible.  I suspect turning on
> accessibility in KDE's configuration utilities should make sure it can
> be used properly with Orca.   Now, I have heard excellent things about
> KDevelop, the IDE for KDE.  As someone who dabbles in c++ from time to
> time, I am enormously intrigued by it and intend to explore it at
> first opportunity.  There are other qt-based developer tools like
> Gambas and Eric which I'd like to look into as well for things like
> Python.
>
> I hope I've answered your questions.  I'm talking with some people now
> about hosting the vmware folder archive containing the multi-desktop
> installation.  Hopefully, there'll be more than one person who hosts
> it and these people will be all over the world which should facilitate
> downloads in theory.  It's a truly massive file at 2.5 GB and takes an
> eternity to download under the best of conditions.  Incidentaly,
> Krishnakant, I understand you have some connections and resources at
> your disposal in India.  Do these include anything that would allow
> you to help with hosting the file?  It might make a difference in
> success of download for some folks in the Middle East, southern and
> Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent in particular.
>
> Have a nice evening,
> Alex M
> .