[Lubuntu-desktop] Creating An Accessibility Specification for Lubuntu 11.10

[Charlie Kravetz]

On Mon, 30 May 2011 12:53:32 -0700
Jonathan Marsden <jmarsden at fastmail.fm> wrote:

> On 05/30/2011 12:19 AM, Chris wrote:
> 
> > What I think is going wrong is difference in jargon. When the Lubuntu
> > devs/people asked for a roadmap is what the Accessibility people
> > would see as an priority list. When the Lubuntu people have their
> > priority list, then they can create their own roadmap.
> 
> That sounds fine to me :)
> 
> My current background assumption is that Lubuntu is "late to the
> accessibility party", just as it is late to "officialness", and that the
> other (already official) Ubuntu variants are, therefore, already
> substantially further along this particular path than we currently are
> in Lubuntu.
> 
> So that we can better discover what needs to be done within Lubuntu, and
> in what order, I would like to know, with some reasonable degree of
> clarity and specificity:
> 
>  (A) What are the expectations of those seeking "adding accessibility"
> to Lubuntu, and what is the relative priority of each such expectation?
> 
>  (B) How do these expectations compare to what is already implemented in
> each of the other Ubuntu variants, and in Debian?
> 
>  (C) How do these expectations compare to what each of the other Ubuntu
> variants plans to do in the current (Oneiric) development cycle?
> 
> Links to current information on what Debian and each Ubuntu variant has
> done, and plans to do, in this regard would therefore be useful.
> 
> Lower priority, but still very useful, would be to also know:
> 
>  (D) How can we know when we have "got there" -- how can we verify that
> Lubuntu (or LXDE, or an application within Lubuntu) has attained a
> particular desired level or standard of accessibility?  (I'm aware of
> http://www.w3.org/WAI/ for web site accessibility -- what are the
> application or OS or DE equivalents used in the Debian/Ubuntu community?).
> 
> At this point, I *really* don't mind what anyone calls this
> documentation (specifications, blueprints, roadmaps, priority lists,
> other?).  I also do not mind who created it (the Ubuntu accessibility
> team, or development teams within each Ubuntu variant, or even sabdfl
> himself!).  My immediate concern is to determine whether such current
> documentation actually exists at all, and if it does, preferably some
> idea of its current level of acceptance or "officialness" (because great
> documentation that everyone else is ignoring may be less helpful than
> mediocre documentation that everyone else has already agreed to follow
> and implement!).
> 
> And, very fundamentally: if this documentation does exist, where can we
> read it?  Everything I have found so far seems either not actually a
> priority list/roadmap, not really Ubuntu-specific, or old and out of
> date.  So perhaps my Google skills are lacking in this (accessibility)
> domain, and I need a little more help finding the real thing.
> 
> If these requests and questions are unreasonable, or expose a total
> misunderstanding of the situation on my part, so be it, please enlighten
> me further :)
> 
> Perhaps the most useful thing I have found so far is
> http://developer.gnome.org/accessibility-devel-guide/3.0/accessibility-devel-guide.html
> -- which is GNOME documentation, not Debian or Ubuntu documentation, and
> Lubuntu does not use GNOME.
> 
> If, in the end, all of this boils down to "as a first major useful step,
> please just add orca and espeak and their dependencies to the Lubuntu
> CD"... that would be good to know :)
> 
> Jonathan
> 

Well, I can not speak for all other distributions (variants), but
Xubuntu will not be adding much. A user is welcome to add orca if they
want to. We do have Onboard Keyboard, but I am still fighting to get
the menu entry added, since Ubuntu removes it from the debian version.

Xubuntu does not have a current blueprint, either. We do not use them.

Of course, expecting any person on the Ubuntu Accessibility Team to
know where all the teams blueprints and roadmaps are is asking a lot!
Please understand that each distribution is a stand-alone thing, not a
group effort by Ubuntu. 

-- 
Charlie Kravetz 
Xubuntu Project Lead
Linux Registered User Number 425914          [http://counter.li.org/]
Never let anyone steal your DREAM.           [http://keepingdreams.com]