iaccessible2 and linux (was Re: Lubuntu and Accessibility)

[Piñeiro]

On 06/07/2011 03:36 AM, Isaac Porat wrote:
> Hi
>
> I was asking the same question a couple of years ago.  My 
> understanding after looking a bit into the issue is that IBM consulted 
> at the time key people in accessibility in Linux (there still some 
> minutes of these meetings) to make both interfaces as close as 
> possible which as indicated it is somewhat the case.
>
> Reading between the lines, iAccessible2 was not accepted for Linux 
> because of both companies and Linux vs Windows politics. the 
> interfaces are close but not the same.  At the time perhaps if 
> somebody on the Linux side took a more favourable approach the 
> communication layer in iAccessible2 implementations would have been 
> properly separated.  As it happened my understanding from Bil Cox who 
> looked at the issue in more details in the Windows world the 
> implementation and communication layers can be mixed with vendors who 
> want to support both Windows and Linux so in practice they need to a 
> good extend maintain two separate stacks and with the ratio of Windows 
> to Linux users of something like 90 to 1 Linux support not suprisingly 
> is always behind.

It is true that there are people that thinks that moving iAccessible2 to 
Linux should be the path. But AFAIK, the reason of why it wasn't done 
was not due politics. It was in order to avoid to "reinvent the wheel". 
Linux had already a working accessible interface, ATK, implemented by a 
lot of actors on Linux (gtk, firefox, etc). So moving to iAccessible2 
means to change all in order to move to a (as already said) really 
similar technology, with similar features.

But I also understand that having "just one thing" would have a lot of 
advantages.

BTW: AFAIK, this is not "one is better that two". AFAIK MacOS doesn't 
use ATK or Ia2:
http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Accessibility/Conceptual/AccessibilityMacOSX/OSXAXModel/OSXAXmodel.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40001078-CH208-TPXREF101

Or I'm wrong?

BR

-- 
Alejandro Piñeiro Iglesias (API) (apinheiro at igalia.com)