[Kde-accessibility] FW: ATIA trip report - GNOME presentations & Java tools

Simon Bates simon.bates@utoronto.ca
Mon, 27 Jan 2003 11:47:51 -0500


Hi Datschge,

> Date: Sat, 25 Jan 2003 21:26:11 +0100 (MET)
> From: Datschge@gmx.net
> To: kde-accessibility@mail.kde.org
> Subject: Re: [Kde-accessibility] FW: ATIA trip report - GNOME presentations & Java tools
> 
> Sounds very nice.
> Especially interesting for me was following quote:
> 
> "Peter also demonstrated the special,
> dynamic features of GOK.  He showed how GOK utilizes the rich accessibility
> architecture of the GNOME platform to enumerate the menu items and toolbar
> elements, and present them on their own dynamic keyboards allowing switch
> and dwell users to directly select them (rather than having to select the
> TAB button on the on-screen keyboard a series of time to get to the toolbar
> entry).  He also demonstrated the special "UI Grab" feature of GOK, which
> creates a special keyboard for dialog boxes and other windows presenting all
> of the controls for direct selection of them."
> 
> How exactly is this going to work, ie. in what regard does it differ from
> standard keyboard input or keyboard controlled pointer? Are on screen elements
> dynamically mapped to specific keys on the keyboard?

GOK displays a keyboard on screen and enables activation of keys on that 
onscreen keyboard using different methods.  Such as direct selection 
where one moves a mouse pointer and clicks on a key to activate it, 
dwell selection where one moves a mouse pointer and pauses on a key to 
activate it and scanning methods where one activates keys using a switch 
or button as an input device.  In scanning mode GOK scans through the 
keyboard is various patterns and keys are activated by closing a switch. 
Scanning patterns available in GOK include row-column scanning where 
rows are first scanned in order, when the desired row is selected the 
keys within that row are then scanned.

GOK can display keyboards that resemble physical keyboards such as a 
QWERTY keyboard but it can also build dynamic keyboards based on the 
current desktop configuration and application.  GOK is able to redisplay 
an application's menus and toolbars in a keyboard providing an 
effiecient means to access those components.  This functionality is 
provided by the AT-SPI, a service that provides assistive technologies 
with information about running applications and access to their user 
interfaces.

For more information on GOK please see:

http://www.gok.ca/

For more information on AT-SPI and the GNOME accessibility architecture 
please see:

http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gap/


> Thanks, Datschge
> 

Simon.