Improving Gnome Desktop Accessibility

[Jacob Schmude]

Hi
I'm confused about some of these. My thoughts inline under each bug
mentioned:

On Tue, 2010-03-02 at 13:54 +0530, Arky wrote:

> Clock-applet inaccessible (regression) 
> https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=581351
> Yes, this one is definitely an issue. The time can be read but the calendar and the weather sections cannot.


> Notification Area icons are inaccessible
> https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=611562
> Not true. Pressing ctrl-f1 on an icon will reveal its tooltip. If the icon has none, that is something the applet designer needs to correct. So they aren't so much inaccessible as they should be streamlined, i.e. ctrl-f1 should not be necessary.


> panel_toplevel_construct_description should provide less technical descriptions 
> https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=610000
> Why? These messages are informational. They tell you where the panel is, its state (expanded/collapsed) and its alignment. I'd rather have this information than not, it's been helpful when fixing systems for friends who are sighted.
> "Desktop" name is now "x-nautilus-desktop" (regression)
> https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=555425
> Cosmetic, isn't it? Besides, it's accurate. You are in X, the underlying file manager is Nautilus, and you are on the desktop.
> "search:" name instead of 
> "x-nautilus-search"
> https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=610789
> See above.
>  Pathbar 'drive' 'previous folder' icon inaccessible 
> https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=610809
> I don't understand this one. In nautilus, on the toolbar, I have the back button as I should when I tab to it. If by the pathbar you mean the little buttons for each folder, well the previous folder is right to the left of the current one, how difficult is that? It's even named.
> Switch to notification area shortcut key
> https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=611563
> A bit redundant, seeing as how all we need do is switch to the appropriate panel and tab straight to it. The solution to accessibility issues is not overload the user with additional keystrokes.
> 
Personally, I think we have bigger fish to fry than cosmetic issues.
Gksudo needs replaced or fixed, no program should be able to block
at-spi (gnome-keyring-ask, I'm looking at you). How about Webkit and the
inaccessibility that big change pulled in? When you come right down to
it, why is enabling the accessibility framework even a choice? It should
always be on and ready to be used if you want a system to be truly
accessible, so that all one need do is fire up
Orca/gok/insert-at-of-choice.
The only true accessibility issue I see in your list is the clock. The
rest are cosmetic or a matter of preference, and with actual bugs
coupled with GNOME 3 on the horizon, I think focus should be on that.
What good is it if GNOME just says "desktop" when I still can't access
Webkit-based apps properly, or can't launch apps as root as I should be
able to do from the GUI?

My $.02

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