Re: [orca-list] VINUX-SUPPORT: RE: Ubuntu Unity Desktop to go to Mir and QT

[Jean-Philippe MENGUAL <texou actux eu org>]

Hi,

Thanks Luke for this very interesting mail. I'm aware of accessibility issues
in the modern free software world, and I try everyday to go on belfeving more
success, even if I'm disappointed by recent GUI. But I go on trying to understand.

You say that GNOME shell works fine today. I feel that changes are so important
that I need to deep that better. Does some doc exist about new shortcuts, new
approach in accessibility? Otherwise, I'll try to write it myself.

Thanks again and I hope, someday, I'll be able to help you via my organization.

Regards,

JP

On mercredi 24 juil. 2013 à 14:04:47 (+1000), Luke Yelavich wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 24, 2013 at 01:33:34PM EST, Alex Midence wrote:
> > Also, for the record, I fully recognize and appreciate all the hard
> > work of the developers of the Ubuntu community who freely give of
> > their time to make things accessible.  However, it was disappointing
> > to finally have gotten a very accessible port of Unity in 12.04 only
> > to be told that we were back to poor a11y in other versions of the
> > distro for at the very least 2 full years.
>
> For the record, I was disappointed as well. I expressed my desire for Unity to stick with using Qt at the 
> time, given the accessibility advantages it brought for one, and the fact that it would have made 
> maintaining unity easier as the nux GUI toolkit wouldn't also need to be maintained, and Qt is well 
> established etc.
>
> I am the only developer working for Canonical who spends at least some of the time working on accessibility 
> issues. I say some of the time, because I do have other duties, in fact the primary reason why I was hired 
> was not to work exclusively on accessibility, although the powers that be are ok with me doing so.
>
> Having said that, my big focus for the next 10-12 months will almost exclusively be getting Qt5, Mir, and 
> Unity as accessible an environment as one person can possibly manage. Qt5 helps somewhat, but the specific 
> parts of Qt that are being used for the new Unity still have some rough spots when it comes to 
> accessibility, and there is also the changing graphics stack and everythign that goes with it to deal with.
>
> Given these changes, and given I am the only person who is likely going to be working on all of this, I 
> cannot really promise anything, given the work that is required, and given the time and resources, or 
> possibly lack there of, available to do so. I do really appreciate that you all want regularly updated, 
> accessible distro releases that have the latest accessibility crack, but please keep in mind just how many 
> of us in the wider *nix accessibility community there are, and also keep in mind how many of us are 
> involved with some form of active development in the area, and if you want to dig deeper, think about the 
> number of us working on GUI desktop accessibility of some kind.
>
> I try to take the approach of under promising, and at least delivering, and if I can over deliver, than 
> thats great.
>
> In the meantime, there is the Ubuntu GNOME remix, with GNOME shell, wich does work quite well these days. 
> I'll do my best to try and fix any issues people may notice with that release, given the accessibility 
> tools and infrastructure are shared with GNOME and Unity.
>
> Thanks, and I really appreciate your understanding, and support.
>
> Luke
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