[Kde-accessibility] OpenOffice and KDE4 Accessiibilty [was: Orca/KDE Integration]

[Éric Bischoff]

(numbering issues so we do more efficient preparation work)

1) Using KDE's colors
=====================

Le Vendredi 1 Septembre 2006 15:29, Olaf Jan Schmidt a écrit :
> [ Éric Bischoff ]
>
> > Ah yes, it works perfectly. See
> >    http://opensource.bureau-cornavin.com/settings/flashy.png
> > The colours were set in the KDE control center.
>
> Yes, it mostly works, but the lineal text is still in black, also some
> frames

I'm not sure about what you are referring to.

> and the text in some dialogs (e.g. settings). 

See this settings dialog
	http://opensource.bureau-cornavin.com/settings/flashy.png,
it seems fully colorized to my unexpert eyes.

> This is impossible to 
> read with a white-on-black colour scheme.

Or is it the tree on the left that you would not want to be black ? If that's 
the problem, then it's a generic problem in OpenOffice.org, not a problem of 
integration of OpenOffice.org within KDE.

> The text and background colours are also not applied to the appearance of
> the text itself, according to the setting that Oliver described.

What do you call "the text itself" ? The document ? Yes it's a generic choice 
in OpenOffice.org, if the user wants a text with blue background and yellow 
letters he has to choose that independantly, on a document per document 
basis. Is that correct, Oliver ?


2) Monochrome icons
===================

> > Okay, is there something else that we can start
>
> KDE has a monochrome icon theme in the kdeaccessibility module.
> You can convert it from Black-On-White to something else (e.g.
> Yellow-On-Blue) in kcontrol: Appearance & Themes > Icons > Advanced > Set
> Effect > To Monochrome.

OK, it works here. I suppose that's a nice idea for impaired people...

> It would be nice if these settings were picked up. 

Yes. That leads me to the following questions for Oliver :
a) is there a monochrome icons theme in OpenOffice.org ?
   And if yes, what's the corresponding setting ?
b) Is there a way to colorize icons in OpenOffice.org ?
   And if yes, what's the corresponding setting ?

If we have lots of chance, Oliver will answer "yes" to both, and I can code 
the mapping of the settings.


> If you need additional high contrast monochrome icons for OpenOffice, then
> I am sure Danny Allen would be willing to draw them for you.

Cool. Then question a) can be rephrased:
a1) Is there a way to select another icon theme
    And if yes, what's the corresponding setting ?
;-)

Cen I get confirmation from Danny Allen he volunteers for that? I am not 
subscribed to kde-accessibility.


3) Keyboard issues
==================

> I assume that a general check for accessibility obstacles (complete control
> via keyboard possible, no timeouts for people with slow response time) has
> already been made, since this is desktop independent.

I don't know. Oliver ?

I'm wondering if that is not that one of the things for which Qt4 is 
needed...?


4) Text to speech
=================

> The KDE Text-to-Speech system (ktts) is integrated in KOffice, meaning that
> you can click on a menu entry to have the text read. But this goes beyond
> normal desktop integration, and it is no solution for blind people, who
> need audio and braille feedback for the complete user interface.

Again : Oliver ?

(sorry to be such an ignorant)


5) KDE 3 or 4 ?
===============

> > without waiting for Qt4 and KDE 4 ?
>
> KDE4 is currently not stable enough to start OpenOffice integration work
> with it.

I was fearing that...

It also reminds me that we will need to check all the existing KDE stuff in 
OpenOffice.org against KDE 4 :-(. I'm thinking in pecular at the KDE address 
book driver and the network settings.

> If you wish to at least begin with something,

I do.

> then I suggest that  
> you have a look at porting OpenOffice over to Qt4, which already has some
> stable releases, but the code will only be useful after KDE4 is released
> (which will still take some time).

Hmmm. Qt alone is not of great help, as most KDE in OOo is not bare bones Qt 
access (do you agree, Kendy ?).

Or are you suggesting that we compile a KDE 3 over Qt 4 ? But that compilation 
has 99 % chances to fail !

> AT-SPI support is still missing in the current releases of Qt4, but the
> protocol is currently only used by GNOME assistive technologies and can
> only be used if GNOME is running anyway. This will change for KDE4.

Yep, that's one of the problems we need to tackle. But we can start we smaller 
things.


6) Fonts
=========

> > You have been mentioning fonts, Olaf ?
>
> Yes. If you set a really big font size in KDE3, is it then picked up by the
> OpenOffice user interface? Some users with low vision can only read light
> 20 pt text on a dark background.

Yes, it already works. Nothing to do on this one. See
	http://opensource.bureau-cornavin.com/settings/big.png


-- 
La monoculture informatique fragilise le système d'information, elle est aussi 
toxique pour les données de l'entreprise. (Guy Brand)