[Kde-accessibility] Dependencies

[Olaf Jan Schmidt]

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Hi!

As there was some talk of having GNOME dependencies in kde-core at=20
compile-time, I was wondering whether we are talking about different=20
approaches here. My understanding was that a simple generic KDE=20
accessibility framework (call it KATK if you want) might be bridged to=20
ATK or AT-SPI in a library which is independent of any other KDE code.

While it would be a good idea to base Qt itself on ATK and thereby make=20
all Qt and KDE applications accessible without much other work, this is=20
beyond our scope, so we will need some Qt-ATK bridge anyway - either in=20
kde-core, or better in an optional package.

There is already some functionality in Qt and DCOP which we could extend=20
to create a very simple KATK. We would not need to implement a complete=20
accessibility framework all at once, as making KDE application export=20
their GUI elements to AT-SPI would already be a huge step. The question=20
how KDE applications could get other information about other applications=
=20
could be addressed later. Our first goal should be just to make sure that=
=20
KDE applications are seen by AT-SPI, so assistive technologies work also=20
with KDE applications.

The properties of any named QObject can already be accessed via DCOP. The=
=20
only problem with KDE objects like menus is that often some of their=20
sub-objects are not named, so they are invisible for DCOP (which could be=
=20
changed).

Another strategy would be to extend QAccessibleObject in cooperation with=
=20
TrollTech, so that the properties of all QObjects can be reached, not=20
just the original Qt objects.

Anyway, what we would need to add for an KATK solution would be=20
information about which QObjects are currently shown in which window,=20
where the cursor currently is, and a notification of any changes.

What else would we need to implement some basic KATK?

Olaf.

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Olaf Jan Schmidt, KDE Accessibility team
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