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Hi,
I'm pasting the
contents of a message from the blind-programming list, which gives a flavour of
how far Gnopernicus has got. I don't know any more than I've just read in
this article, but thought it was worth passing on.
Tim
Pennick
-----Original Message----- From: Programming-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:Programming-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Jamal Mazrui Sent: 17 November 2005 20:17 To: Programming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: RE: Java survey?
Pasted below my name is a recent comparison between Gnopernicus and Windows screen readers. It is excerpted from the blog article by Peter Korn entitled "Massachusetts, Open Document, and Accessibility" http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/korn/20051113 That article is about a heated topic in the field of universal access today: whether Massachusetts' planned move to an open XML rather than Microsoft standard for government documents is in the interest of people with disabilities. Jamal
"OpenOffice.org works pretty well today with the screen reading features of the Gnopernicus screen reader. The screen reader accurately tracks the caret, focus in dialogs, selections in menus, etc. It knows about text attributes and font information, and exposes that upon request in speech and Braille. This is because the rich OpenOffice.org accessibility information is directly exposed via the GNOME accessibility framework, which is what the Gnopernicus screen reader uses exclusively for presenting the screen contents to users. While there are some bugs with OpenOffice.org and Gnopernicus, the key issue for screen reader users who are using any of the premier screen readers for Microsoft Windows with Microsoft Office today is that the Gnopernicus screen reader doesn't have many of the features that these products have. Furthermore, Gnopernicus is by design a "one-size-fits-all" screen reader. The explicit intent behind the first release of Gnopernicus was to not have custom scripts for specific applications, but instead to provide a general and universal user interface to everything on the desktop. This helped tremendously in proving the design of the accessibility architecture - if there was a presentation problem because of incorrect information coming from the accessibility architecture it had to be fixed in the architecture (rather than worked around in a custom script). However, when it comes to offering comparable efficiency and productivity to blind users who are used to using MS-Office with one of the premier Windows screen readers, Gnopernicus today leaves something to be desired." ---------- -----Original Message----- From: Programming-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:Programming-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Sina Bahram Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2005 12:28 PM To: Programming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: RE: Java survey?
Well, in their defense, I would say that there is a timeline to think of ... Gnoppernicus is a baby compared to jaws's healthy 15 years. So ... I think it is rather impressive how far they have come. Now, impressive or not, if your document doesn't read, that doesn't do you any good, does it? ... So I do think they are aware of this, and I do believe that Gnopernicus does work well with star office and other applications by sun, but I have not verified this entirely, just a little. Also, do remember that while sun does contribute to gnome, Gnopernicus, and the rest ... Those are open source projects. So they are not exactly under sun's complete control, like voiceover is for apple. Which I am very grateful for, as they actually comply, or try to comply, to certain standards of usability and accessibility ... I would never say anything similar for apple. Take care, Sina -----Original Message----- From: Programming-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:Programming-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jamal Mazrui Sent: Wednesday, November 16, 2005 1:48 PM To: Programming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: RE: Java survey? Although I agree that Windows screen readers should increase efforts to support Java applications, it also concerns me that end-user accessibility remains weak on Unix--the operating that Sun, itself, produces. I hope someone lets me know if I am mistaken about this, but my understanding is that screen readers for Solaris or Linux, e.g., Gnopernicus, continue to lag behind Windows screen readers in functionality. I find this perplexing since accessibility has supposedly been built into these flavors of Unix in a a more deliberate, robust, and rich manner than in Win32. Does Gnopernicus work better with Java applications than Jaws? How well does the best Linux screen reader work with Open Office compared to JAWS, Window-Eyes, or Hal with Microsoft Office? Jamal
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