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

[Gunnar Schmi Dt]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Hello,

On Wednesday 08 October 2003 09:56, marco skambraks wrote:
> On Wed, 8 Oct 2003, Martin Konold wrote:
> > [...]
> > I dont like this very negative statement about Linux in a press release.
>
> me to!
>
> > Actually it is also missleading. E.g. (SuSE) Linux has since a long time
> > the capability to be installed with a Braille device. Also the GUIs of
> > Linux have already since a long time features which help the disabled. Of
> > course there is very much room for improvement!
>
Well, most of the graphical user interfaces are in fact inaccessible to blind 
users or to users that need special input devices. (The only exception that I 
know of is GNOME 2.x when AT-SPI and either Gnopernicus or the GNOME Onscreen 
Keyboard (or both) are installed.) SuSE's accessible Linux system is only 
accessible via the braille device on the text console.

Maybe you are right, though, with that the first statement was too negative.

> I think the accessibility work of KDE is another step
> to make linux more atactive for handicapped people
>
> just say/write:
> that the kde-accessibility-team knows the problem and they are
> working on a solution
> with kde-accessibility handicapped people will get the chance/possibility
> to use the GUI
>
> a handicap should not be a handicap under KDE :-)

What about the following statement:

<statement>
Although there are many efforts to help handicapped persons to use a Linux 
based computer, most of the current graphical user interfaces still have many 
obstacles to blind persons or to people who cannot handle a normal keyboard 
or a mouse.

We, people involved in the KDE project, do not want to support this social 
exclusion but rather see the support for handicapped persons as an important 
feature for every software. The KDE accessibility team knows about the 
problem and they are working on improving the accessibility of KDE.

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

Gunnar Schmi Dt
- -- 
Co-maintainer of the KDE Accessibility Project
Maintainer of the kdeaccessibility package
http://accessibility.kde.org/
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.7 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQE/hDR7sxZ93p+gHn4RAoC/AKDn/N2ZsmNIGYX/OA/zeLowewUGJwCg8PIh
BdG6rCRv62e9WHLc79C6yjw=
=pHug
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----