[gui-talk] Open-source developers focus on accessibility (fwd)

Thu Aug 26 20:06:18 EDT 2004

-- 
Erik Heil <eheil at va3duk.serveftp.com>
Phone: (865) 673-0542

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 17:51:00 -0500
From: H. Field <missheather at comcast.net>
Reply-To: NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
To: gui-talk at nfbnet.org
Subject: [gui-talk] Open-source developers focus on accessibility

Open-source developers focus on accessibility
By Ingrid Marson
CNET News.com
August 25, 2004, 10:38 AM PT

Developers behind the next version of KDE, an open-source Linux desktop
environment, are trying to make their software more
accessible to people with disabilities.

Accessibility is a major theme at the KDE Community World Summit, taking
place in Ludwigsburg, Germany. Earlier this week,
the summit held a Unix Accessibility Forum, bringing together developers and
people with disabilities.

During the forum, KDE developer Harald Fernengel presented a demonstration
of the KDE developer tool, Qt, showing how it
could be used with GOK, an on-screen keyboard of GNOME, another open-source
Linux desktop environment, for people who have
problems using ordinary keyboards. He also demonstrated KDE working with the
text-to-speech screen reader Gnopernicus.

The next version of KDE, which will either be called 3.4 or 4, will be
compatible with accessibility software, which
currently only runs on GNOME.

KDE's developers are also keen to ensure that all applications on the next
release fully support the Linux operating system's
accessibility features and pledged to improve utilities that automate the
use of a mouse, magnify parts of the screen and
convert text to speech.

KDE developer Olaf Schmidt said on Tuesday that changes in Qt will ensure
that all KDE interfaces provide the right
information to these assistance technologies. He also pointed out that the
GOK on-screen keyboard nicely complements the
functionality of the KMouth text-to-speech converter.

"KMouth and GOK make a good match," Schmidt said. "If you lose your voice,
you may also have lost movement for the same
reason--you can then use your computer to communicate with the outside
world."

KDE's accessibility forum was also attended by representatives from GNOME,
Sun Microsystems, IBM, Novell, Trolltech and the
Free Standards Group.

Janina Sajka, who leads the Accessibility Workgroup of the Free Standards
Group, said users who care about accessibility are
fundamentally agnostic about operating systems.

"The people who use these technologies don't care where the applications
come from--they just want them to work," Sajka said.

Sajka warned that the high cost of proprietary versions of accessibility
software was often prohibitive, particularly since
many people with disabilities are unemployed.

Open-source alternatives are easier to customize than many proprietary
options, giving disabled people more opportunity to
tailor the software to their needs, Sajka said.

"The open-source environment is significantly more accessible, as nothing is
hidden--all the configurations and data are
available and can be modified," she said.

IBM is one of the main commercial providers of accessibility software, and
KDE developers at the event reported that
ViaVoice, an IBM application that converts speech to text and vice versa,
would shortly be available for Linux applications.

Vanessa Donnelly, a usability and accessibility consultant for IBM, said IBM
has several initiatives designed to make its
accessibility software more affordable. Big Blue offers its Web Adaptation
Technology, which enables users to adapt pages to
their own needs, free of charge to disabled people and charities. In another
initiative, IBM offered Home Page Reader, a
screen reader product for the visually impaired, for free on certain
government Web sites. IBM was unable to provide an
example Web site.

Donnelly also pointed IBM's long-term commitment to making technology
accessible. "IBM has been doing accessibility research
for over 50 years. For example, we were the first to make a talking
browser," she said.

Ingrid Marson reported for ZDNet UK.

URL: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-5323812.html

---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.742 / Virus Database: 495 - Release Date: 8/19/2004

_______________________________________________
gui-talk mailing list
gui-talk at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gui-talk