[sugar] OLPC Accessibility

[Chris Jones]

I definitely think it's worth including if we can.  I didn't think it
overly important though since an OSK can accomplish all the same
functions as well as being usable with switch devices.

Dasher runs on my old pentium 2 laptop running a full blown
distribution so I imagine it would run fine on the OLPC.

> On 24/12/06, Xavier Alvarez <xavi.alvarez at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Chris,
> >
> > From my ignorance (I've never really used Dasher) it would seem to
> > have several positive aspects:
> > 1) Multi-lingual (afaik, very little configuration is required to
> > switch or enable languages)
> > 2) Multiple input interfaces (mice, joysticks, eye-tracking, etc)
> > 3) when the laptop is in e-book mode, the keyboard is unusable, but
> > (this is my 'favorite' plus) the laptop still has the cursor-pads
> > available - if used as a pointer by dasher, kids will be able to take
> > notes single handed.
> >
> > The downside (as David McKay reported) is that the performance on the
> > OLPC is not spectacular - but there were some ideas about
> > improvements...
> >
> > My 2cts,
> > Xavier
> >
> > On 12/23/06, Chris Jones <skating.tortoise at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > I was approached by Ivan Krstić to look at accessibility on the OLPC.
> > >
> > > The two main things we need to accomplish are firstly support for
> > > alternative inputs such as head mice and switch devices using an
> > > on-screen keyboard.  Secondly some basic screen reader support for
> > > visually impaired users.
> > >
> > > Written below is the way I think these things could be implemented on
> > > the OLPC.  Though my knowledge of the OLPC is not very broad so I
> > > would like to invite the readers of this list to comment on what is
> > > unworkable and advise where there is a better solution.
> > >
> > > --On-Screen Keyboard--
> > >
> > > Currently all Linux OSKs work as a window that sets various window
> > > manager hints to keep other windows from covering it and stop it
> > > gaining focus.  Fake key press events are then sent to the xserver.
> > > This would not be possible to do on Sugar however because the window
> > > concept does not exist.
> > >
> > > The limited size of the display on the OLPC means that when the
> > > keyboard is in use we probably want it to use all the screen.  With a
> > > widget showing the text being edited.
> > >
> > > Instead of creating a separate OSK activity or application it might be
> > > better to make an OSK full-screen widget which an activity invokes
> > > when it is needed.  For example when a text entry widget is selected.
> > >
> > > A similar approach could be taken to select widgets in an activity
> > > when in switch mode.  Each activity implements a way to cycle through
> > > widgets in a sensible order using a switch device.
> > >
> > > --Screen Reader--
> > > Linux screen readers such as Orca use the accessibility framework and
> > > a per application script to work out what text to speak.
> > >
> > > We have the advantage of being able to hardcode speech in to each
> > > activity which should be much more efficient and have a better end
> > > result.
> > >
> > > The first step would be to include a speech engine with the OLPC OS.
> > > eSpeak seems like a good choice because of it's low resource usage
> > > compared to festival for example.
> > >
> > > -- Accessibility Settings--
> > > There needs to be a way to configure accessibility settings globally
> > > to all activities.  These setting basically consist of
> > > enabling/disabling screenreader and onscreen keyboard.
> > >
> > > Other points worth considering are:
> > > * The inclusion of Dasher, another input system.
> > >
> > > * Magnification which has only recently become usable on conventional
> > > Linux desktops because of XGL/AIGLX
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Chris Jones
> > >
> > > jabber - skating.tortoise at gmail.com
> > > msn - skating_tortoise at dsl.pipex.com
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > > Sugar at laptop.org
> > > http://mailman.laptop.org/mailman/listinfo/sugar
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
>
>
> --
> Chris Jones
>
> jabber - skating.tortoise at gmail.com
> msn - skating_tortoise at dsl.pipex.com
>


-- 
Chris Jones

jabber - skating.tortoise at gmail.com
msn - skating_tortoise at dsl.pipex.com