KDE access utility tool has disabled my keyboard

Hi!

Thanks for your email.

You can return your keyboard to normal operation by starting
kcontrol, going 
to "Regional & Accessibility" >
"Accessibility", and making sure that all 
checkboxes in the tabs "Modifier Keys",
"Keyboard Filters" and "Activation 
Gestures" are unchecked.

You can also delete (or rename) $HOME/.kde/share/kaccess.rc
to restore your 
system to default values.

>From your report it sounds as if somehow the "Slow
keys" function was 
activated through that keyboard gesture. This is a function
needed by some 
users with disabilities and means that you need to press
each key a few 
seconds before the key press is registered.

I do not know why clicking "Deactivate all AccessX
gestures and functions" did 
not work for you. It always worked for every KDE version I
used. I just 
tested again with KDE 3.5.8.

Perhaps this is a bug in the X11 library installed on you
computer (which is 
unrelated to KDE). Perhaps one of the non-KDE applications
used by you 
interfered. (In this case you might also have to restore the
equivalent GNOME 
settings, but fortunately this is very unlikely.) Perhaps it
is a 
distribution-specific bug not present in the original KDE
code. I do not 
know. I can only say that this is not KDE's normal
behaviour.

For one of the next KDE versions, we plan to have a big
warning applet shown 
whenever any of the AccessX features is activated. This
applet would then 
allow to quickly switch off everything AccessX related.

Olaf Schmidt
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https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-accessibility

Hello,

On Freitag, 14. Dezember 2007, WILLIAM NAYLAND wrote:
> [...]
>   The sequence of what happened, is that while using
Inkscape it was
> necessary to keep the control and/or the shift keys
pressed for longer
> than KDE liked. It came up with a message headed KDE
Accessibilty Tool
> which offered to deactivate all AccessX  feature and
gestures. Like the
> trusting fool I am I clicked on it. Silly me.No
keyboard.

It was the shift key. Pressing that key for eight seconds is
a common 
gesture to indicate that you want to turn on or off the
"slow keys" 
feature. This feature is a special mode where you have to
press a key a 
certain amount of time before it is accepted.

The text of the dialog should have been:

dialog> Do you really want to activate "Slow
keys"?
dialog>
dialog> You held down the Shift key for 8 seconds or an
application
dialog> has requested to change this setting. These
AccessX settings
dialog> are needed for some users with motion impairments
and can be
dialog> configured in the KDE Control Center. You can
also turn them
dialog> on and off with standardized keyboard gestures.
dialog>
dialog> If you do not need them, you can select
"Deactivate all
dialog> AccessX features and gestures".

From your description of the current behavior of your
keyboard I guess that 
you did not realize that for turning off the AccessX
features and the 
gestures you need to select "Deactivate all AccessX
features and gestures" 
from the combo box below the cited text.

> [...]
>   It would be very nice if someone could tell me what
to reset and how
> it can be done from root.
> [...]

The AccessX features are configured per user, so you do not
need to become 
the root user for restoring your keyboard settings.

The first thing you might want to try is to use the keyboard
gesture a 
second time (e.g., to indicate that you want to turn off the
slow keys 
feature). You can do this by pressing the shift key at least
eight second 
(plus the time needed for the shift key to be accepted). If
all works as 
expected the above dialog should open again (asking whether
you want to 
deactivate the slow keys feature. You may want to select
"Deactivate all 
AccessX features and gestures" in that dialog.

If this way does not work, you need to use the KDE Control
Center for 
restoring your keyboard settings. In the module
"Regional & 
Accessibility / Accessibility" you might want to
uncheck the "Slow keys" 
function and the keyboard gestures.

I hope that I could help you,

Gunnar Schmi Dt
-- 
Co-maintainer of the KDE Accessibility Project
Maintainer of the kdeaccessibility package
http://accessibility.kd
e.org/

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