Hi Michael:
I was forwarded your email, I don't usually read the xfree86 list.
Accessibility for X is a mixed bag; there's the excellent 'AccessX' aka
AKB extension which helps a great deal for mild-to-moderate mobility
problems, and allows more users to use the keyboard. XKB alone doesn't
provide much of a user-interface, so utilities such as the 'accessx'
commandline utility and things like the GNOME "Desktop
Preferences->Accessibility->Keyboard" dialog give the user control over
features like Sticky Keys, Mouse Keys, Slow Keys, etc. XKB also makes
possible things like "visual bell" features, again featured with GNOME
version 2.4, in the "Sound" desktop preferences dialog.
With respect to fullscreen magnification and assistive technology
support, X accessibility has been much less successful. That's partly
because the X desktop tends to be heterogeneous, toolkit-wise, and also
because of X's nice client-server network architecture which makes it
much harder to do the usual assistive technology hacks like replacing
the video driver and hooking into low-level OS functions. There was an
attempt to create an X-based screen-reader called the BEAM project, some
years ago, but I don't think the results were terribly promising, for
various technical reasons.
The story is changing with the GNOME Accessibility Project which aims to
put a service-based API and architecture in place which is
toolkit-agnostic and works with various apps. At the moment it's
working with the latest or development versions of GTK+ (2.0+), GNOME
(2.2+), Java (1.4.1+), StarOffice/OpenOffice.org (6.X, 1.1+), Mozilla
(in development, 1.4?), and KDE has announced a plan for integrating
with it as well. GNOME version 2.4.0 was bundled with initial versions
of an integrated screenreader/magnifier ('gnopernicus')), a suite of
adaptive onscreen keyboards ('gok'), and other accessibility features
such as extensive visual theme support and full keyboard navigation
(modulo some bugs of course). Version 2.4.0 was just released last
week, so it will probably start to be folded into Linux distributions in
the coming months.
The fullscreen magnification issue, as well as some other
keyboard-interception issues, are still challenges for delivery of good
assistive technology on X. Fullscreen magnification currently requires
2 X screens (and thus, for the moment, two framebuffers), and good event
interception will require a new X extension which is currently under
discussion, to supplement Xlib's XGrab features which have serious
limitations from an assistive technology viewpoint.
best regards,
Bill Haneman
The GNOME Accessibility Project
http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gap
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [XFree86] accessibility?
> Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2003 11:59:24 -0500
> From: Michael <mogmios@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Reply-To: xfree86@xxxxxxxxxxx
> To: XFree86@xxxxxxxxxxx
>
> I'm working on a little article on handicapped accessibility in Linux.
> Could anyone give me some pointers where to find useful information in
> regard to accessibility and XFree86 or any X related software your
> familiar with? Thanks.
>
>
> --
> "When Government fears the people, it's liberty. When people fear the
> Government, it's tyranny." -- Benjamin Franklin
>
> Michael <mogmios@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> http://kavlon.org
>
> _______________________________________________
> XFree86 mailing list
> XFree86@xxxxxxxxxxx
> http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/xfree86
>
> --
> -Alan Coopersmith- alan.coopersmith@xxxxxxx
> Sun Microsystems, Inc. - Sun Software Group
> User Experience Engineering: G11N: X Window System
>
>
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