[Kde-accessibility] Fwd: Free Standards Group Accessibility Workgroup

[Gunnar Schmi Dt]

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Hello,

I sent the following mail to the kde-accessibility, kde-core-devel and 
kde-devel lists as I thought that this concerns both people connected to the 
KDE Accessibility Project and other developers interested in KDE.

As the only reply Philippe Fremy suggested that I forward the mail to the 
kde-promo list, so I hope that this list is more appropriate for my mail. (I 
did not know that this list existed, otherwise I would have sent a CC to this 
list.)

Gunnar Schmi Dt

P.S.
Is there a policy for writing statements "from KDE" (as the one I intend to 
produce)? Or is it just that one developer (or a number of developers) simply 
write their names below such a statement?

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Subject: Free Standards Group Accessibility Workgroup
Date: Monday 06 October 2003 17:52
From: Gunnar Schmi Dt <gunnar at schmi-dt.de>
To: kde-accessibility at mail.kde.org
Cc: kde-devel at mail.kde.org

Hello,

Since about two weeks the Free Standards Group has a subgroup for
accessibility. (I am a member of that working group and represent the KDE
Accessibility Project in the group.)

The goal for this accessibility working group is to define a number of
standards around accessibility. These standards will include:
- - A protocol over which applications and assistive toolkits can exchange
information (AT-SPI, which was developed by the GNOME accessibility project
is a good candidate for this)
- - Keyboard Accessibility (including features as Sticky Keys[1], Slow
 Keys[2], and Bounce Keys[3])
- - The possibility that different applications share access e.g., to braille
devices (this point is more related to the linux kernel)
- - Documentation about the accessibility features and how to configure them
etc.

On October 20, we want to announce the working group in a press release. In
order to give that press release some additional weight, we will include some
quotes from companies etc.

For KDE I would like to formulate some lines that show that KDE will have
interest in the results of the working group. This will be something as
follows:

<statement>
The current graphical user interfaces on Linux contain a lot of obstacles to
people who cannot handle a keyboard or a mouse as quickly as most people, or
who have low vision. We, people involved in the KDE project, do not want this
social exclusion to persist.

There are many different handicaps, and the manpower available for writing
assistive technologies is restricted, so assistive technologies on Linux need
to interoperate well with applications using other toolkits. We appreciate
the foundation of the Free Standards Group as a forum to discuss possible
standards with other projects involved in accessibility.
</statement>

I would be happy if we come to a statement that is supported by many KDE
developers.

Gunnar Schmi Dt

[1] When the "Sticky Keys" feature is turned on, you can press key
combinations sequentially. For example you first press "Control" and after
that "S" in order to save a file instead of both keys simultaneously.
[2] When the "Slow Keys" feature is turned on, a key press is only generated
when you press a key longer than a certain amount of time. This feature helps
avoiding wrong keypresses.
[3] When the "Bounce Keys" feature is turned on every key is locked for a
certein amount of time after it has been used. This feature helps to avoid
double key presses if the user has quivering hands.
- --
Co-maintainer of the KDE Accessibility Project
Maintainer of the kdeaccessibility package
http://accessibility.kde.org/
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