KDE/ QT/ Plasma accessibility contributions

[chrys at linux-a11y.org]

Howdy Frederik,

Glad to hear from you
> Great to hear that the zooming works :)
Yea indeed works very well. Also if it has some issues with overlays like
task switcher or other effects. But its for sure fixable and currently no
show stopper here. I still love my plasma and looking forward to ger my
5.14 update on Arch to test latest stuff

> Wow, amazing! That means our efforts did pay off. This is really exciting
Awesome Job, thanks to you and all who already spent all that effort and
time into KDE a11y.

> Yes, I've been trying to get things working for a long while, but I
cannot do
> this alone (neither time nor energy wise).

Amazing :), its even more fun not have to deal with it alone, its more fun
and motivating (i think) to do things as team.
But yea you say it, the bad matter of time. I work as ERP developer
(dynamics Nav) full day what reduce my time i can spend on my a11y projects
like OCRdesktop or fenrir screenreader to spare time. But i love my job and
coding. So no stopper for me too to do so.

> I'm happy to do that, sorry for the late reaction, I was generally busy
> lately.
No Problem, this makes me smile :).
For me the major issues i see in QT/Plasma:
1. bad keyboard navigation (ho to focus panel, embedded widgets, tray
whatever)
2. a lot of missing a11y names, labels roles
3. a11y Performance can be very bad here sometimes
4. it also crashes a lot with screenreader enabled ( for sure orca deas not
hanle everything here gracefully, orcas  QT scrips are not as good tested
as its GTK script)
5. my nasty ezoom issues lol

I already read some stuff and found the widgets are mostly (all?) weitten
in qml.
i understood that quite good because no black magic here :).
Some useful links to me i want to share because they may help others too:
http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qml-qtquick-accessible.html
http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qml-qtquick-keynavigation.html
https://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/Plasma5/QML2/GettingStarted

I currently play with that.

> I think there are some tasks on phabricator which KDE uses for planning.
>
> https://phabricator.kde.org/ is the general website, also used for code
> review.
>
> There is a project for Plasma Accessibility:
> https://phabricator.kde.org/project/view/249/
Yea i already found that and see some stuff like  missing a11y labels or
keyboard nav here and there. So fits with my observations.

But i see no way to register at this website to comment, create todos or
send patches? How is the wotkflow here?

> I think the first thing would be to go through the list and see what is
> current, which tasks need fixing and then of course add all the things
that
> don't work.
Yea. will do that. I wanted to take a look in kickers favorite/  
bookmark keyboard nav first. Sounds not so complex as i m a beginner  
in QT/ QML / Plasma world.

> Ideally we also manage to blog about this to get some more attention :)
Thats an realy cool idea! Is there already something like a KDE  a11y  
blogging section or category ?

It should indeed find more publicity in fact most huge issues for  
blind guys are a oneliner by an good dev :/. So much issues can be  
wiped out when devs know how to care about that. With the nice side  
effect that automated testing works as well :). Even users need to  
know that the situation improves. Thats why many impaired people dont  
use or even try KDE. Because in there brain is still „nothing works  
there for me“ and this is just wrong i think. A lot of great work  
already happend at this sector already.

Cheers, greez from germany

Chrys


Zitat von Frederik Gladhorn <gladhorn at kde.org>:

> Hi Chrys,
>
> I'll answer your mail inline, below.
>
> On torsdag 23. august 2018 10.16.15 CEST chrys at linux-a11y.org wrote:
>> Howdy list,
>>
>> My name is chrys. I m a visual impaired guy from germany. I m new to
>> this list.
>> Since Gnome gets more and more crippled i decide to change to KDE/
Plasma.
>> And it was one of best decisions I did. Plasma is awsome and i wont
>> miss it now (lol).
>> I use KWins zoom plugin.
>
> Great to hear that the zooming works :)
>
>>
>> My girlfrind is blind. She currently switched to Mate for the same
>> reason like me. Mate is pretty accessible. But there are a lot of
>> stuff missing what we would suspect from an modern desktop (search in
>> menu and those stuff).
>> Plasma has all that. So i decide to try plasma using Orca.
>> My results: Its very slow, unstable and often hard to navigate. But it
>> worked at all! thats more that i was suspecting. What tells me that
>> the plasma shell already exposes the needed information to the at-spi
>> (cool).
>> Impressed by that results, I want start fixing up stuff for KDE/
>> Plasma/ QT a11y to make work for her (and ohters) one day.
>> So i read
>> https://community.kde.org/Get_Involved#Accessibility
>> and
>> https://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/Accessibility
>> what brings me to the point to say hello here in the list :).
>
> Wow, amazing! That means our efforts did pay off. This is really exciting
to
> read. I hope we can quickly improve things.
>
>> Sadly information is very rare in a11y stuff (not only for KDE). Thats
>> why i want to find others who maybe already have knowledge to Mentor
>> me or wants to work together with me to raise the motivation and fun
>>
>> :). on my way to get touched with that.
>>
>> So:
>> 1. Is there someone out there who wants to join my effort?
>
> Yes, I've been trying to get things working for a long while, but I
cannot do
> this alone (neither time nor energy wise).
>
>> 2. Is there someone out there who can Mentor me a bit for my first
steps?
>
> I'm happy to do that, sorry for the late reaction, I was generally busy
> lately.
>
>> 3. Is there an effort what already exists what i can maybe join?
>
> I think there are some tasks on phabricator which KDE uses for planning.
>
> https://phabricator.kde.org/ is the general website, also used for code
> review.
>
> There is a project for Plasma Accessibility:
> https://phabricator.kde.org/project/view/249/
>
> I think the first thing would be to go through the list and see what is
> current, which tasks need fixing and then of course add all the things
that
> don't work.
>
> Ideally we also manage to blog about this to get some more attention :)
>
> Cheers,
> Frederik
>
>
>>
>> cheers chrys