KDE-accessibility/Qt AT-SPI

Hello,

I've recently become aware of some shortcomings in KDE-accessibility project
(or possibly only percieved shortcomings).  I'm very curious as to the state
of Qt/KDE with regard to their ability to work with screen reader programs
such as Orca.  Note that I'm not blind, have not used Orca as of yet, but as a
KDE developer I'm worried that we are not quite as supportive of accessibility
as we should be and/or used to be. Gunnar posted some specs for how to use ATK
and/or AT-SPI to the kde accessibility website, but that was years ago.[1] Qt
also supposedly has accessibility support in Qt 4 [2] but without going to AT-
SPI I've no clue what good it does, i.e. what interfaces it provides and how
screen readers such as Orca can use it.

From what little research I have done it appears that there is work going on
to make an AT-SPI to DBus bridge, which is not yet completed from what I
gather.  Please correct me if I'm wrong on any of this, my aim is to start a
discussion and get some things started or at the very least understand some
more about this.

I also noticed that on the Orca site, and all gnome accessibility sites I have
found Qt/KDE is mentioned as not providing the accessible interface necessary
for screen readers to work with our apps.   I'd like to know if this is true,
and also how to remedy this.  I'll be installing/trying Orca soon to get a
feel for how it works, and what it does exactly, etc. and so I'll be able to
test it with KDE/Qt apps.

thanks,

Jeremy Whiting

P.S. I am subscribed to both cc'ed lists and will join any others as needed.

[1] http://accessibility.kde.org/developer/atk.php
[2] http://doc.trolltech.com/4.5/qt4-accessibility.html
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[Olaf Schmidt-Wischhöfer]

Hi Jeremy,

thanks a lot for offering to contribute to KDE Accessibility.

As you already wrote, Qt had an accessibility framework that can be used to
make Qt and KDE applications accessible with Orca or other assistive
technologies. One Trolltech developer (Harald Fernengel) even wrote a D-Bus
interface for it:
http://labs.trolltech.com/page/Projects/Accessibility/QDBusBridge

See also:
http://labs.trolltech.com/page/Projects/Accessibility/IAPoke
http://labs.trolltech.com/page/Projects/Accessibility/QDasher

This interface could be used by Orca. But it would need to be completed and
bug-fixed to achieve the full results, and in the meantime, it has become clear
Gnome is now also moving to D-Bus for their accessibility framework.

It would make a lot of sense to rework Harald's code to use the same D-Bus
interfaces as Gnome.

The timing is very good to get involved now, since it has become clear at last
that a common approach with Gnome is possible. Important decisions about the
Free Software accessibility architecture have been made (namely, Gnome's D-Bus
move).

Gunnar and I spent a lot of time on KDE Accessibility in the past, but we are
now at a point where we simply do not have the time any more to continue with
this very important work. But I promise to help you as much as I can (by
answering questions and maybe by helping with the testing) if you wish to
continue with the work started by Harald, Gunnar and myself.

Olaf




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[Dan Miner-2]

I'm glad to hear that a common ground appears to be coming out the
work.  I'm becoming very interested in accessibility on a personal front
because I'm nearing the end of my vision.  Is there some resources you
could mention for a developer starting out on building and eventual coding?

I'm a software developer myself and I'm starting to find serious need
for screen magnification and reading now.  Last time I tried, I couldn't
get the latest code to ever build and then no clues even how to get
stuff submitted.

    Regards,
       Dan


Olaf Schmidt wrote:

> Hi Jeremy,
>
> thanks a lot for offering to contribute to KDE Accessibility.
>
> As you already wrote, Qt had an accessibility framework that can be used to
> make Qt and KDE applications accessible with Orca or other assistive
> technologies. One Trolltech developer (Harald Fernengel) even wrote a D-Bus
> interface for it:
> http://labs.trolltech.com/page/Projects/Accessibility/QDBusBridge
>
> See also:
> http://labs.trolltech.com/page/Projects/Accessibility/IAPoke
> http://labs.trolltech.com/page/Projects/Accessibility/QDasher
>
> This interface could be used by Orca. But it would need to be completed and
> bug-fixed to achieve the full results, and in the meantime, it has become clear
> Gnome is now also moving to D-Bus for their accessibility framework.
>
> It would make a lot of sense to rework Harald's code to use the same D-Bus
> interfaces as Gnome.
>
> The timing is very good to get involved now, since it has become clear at last
> that a common approach with Gnome is possible. Important decisions about the
> Free Software accessibility architecture have been made (namely, Gnome's D-Bus
> move).
>
> Gunnar and I spent a lot of time on KDE Accessibility in the past, but we are
> now at a point where we simply do not have the time any more to continue with
> this very important work. But I promise to help you as much as I can (by
> answering questions and maybe by helping with the testing) if you wish to
> continue with the work started by Harald, Gunnar and myself.
>
> Olaf
>
>
>  
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> kde-accessibility mailing list
> kde-accessibility@...
> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-accessibility
>  

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[Willie Walker]

Hi Dan:

You can learn more about the Orca screen reader and magnifier at
http://live.gnome.org/Orca.  I would love to grow the Orca developer
community, so please let me know what questions you may have.

Will

Dan Miner wrote:

> I'm glad to hear that a common ground appears to be coming out the
> work.  I'm becoming very interested in accessibility on a personal front
> because I'm nearing the end of my vision.  Is there some resources you
> could mention for a developer starting out on building and eventual coding?
>
> I'm a software developer myself and I'm starting to find serious need
> for screen magnification and reading now.  Last time I tried, I couldn't
> get the latest code to ever build and then no clues even how to get
> stuff submitted.
>
>     Regards,
>        Dan
>
>
> Olaf Schmidt wrote:
>> Hi Jeremy,
>>
>> thanks a lot for offering to contribute to KDE Accessibility.
>>
>> As you already wrote, Qt had an accessibility framework that can be used to
>> make Qt and KDE applications accessible with Orca or other assistive
>> technologies. One Trolltech developer (Harald Fernengel) even wrote a D-Bus
>> interface for it:
>> http://labs.trolltech.com/page/Projects/Accessibility/QDBusBridge
>>
>> See also:
>> http://labs.trolltech.com/page/Projects/Accessibility/IAPoke
>> http://labs.trolltech.com/page/Projects/Accessibility/QDasher
>>
>> This interface could be used by Orca. But it would need to be completed and
>> bug-fixed to achieve the full results, and in the meantime, it has become clear
>> Gnome is now also moving to D-Bus for their accessibility framework.
>>
>> It would make a lot of sense to rework Harald's code to use the same D-Bus
>> interfaces as Gnome.
>>
>> The timing is very good to get involved now, since it has become clear at last
>> that a common approach with Gnome is possible. Important decisions about the
>> Free Software accessibility architecture have been made (namely, Gnome's D-Bus
>> move).
>>
>> Gunnar and I spent a lot of time on KDE Accessibility in the past, but we are
>> now at a point where we simply do not have the time any more to continue with
>> this very important work. But I promise to help you as much as I can (by
>> answering questions and maybe by helping with the testing) if you wish to
>> continue with the work started by Harald, Gunnar and myself.
>>
>> Olaf
>>
>>
>>  
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> kde-accessibility mailing list
>> kde-accessibility@...
>> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-accessibility
>>  
>
> _______________________________________________
> kde-accessibility mailing list
> kde-accessibility@...
> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-accessibility

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