Free Standards Group Accessibility Workgroup

[Gunnar Schmi Dt]

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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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