Accessibility Summer of Code projects

Hi all,

(sorry for cross-posting again)

The Ubuntu Accessibility Team is hosting up to three
development 
projects during this year's Summer of Code. The SoC scheme
is an 
opportunity to  break some new ground and so we are focusing
on new 
tools. There are  technologies coming on line such as
XGL/compiz which 
we should take advantage of to provide a higher level of
accessibility.

The three main ideas are:

 * An XGL/compiz-based desktop magnifier
 * A simple and user-friendly on-screen keyboard
 * A common Assistive Technology configuration utility

See the Ubuntu SoC2006 page for details: 
https://wiki.ub
untu.com/GoogleSoC2006

There is still time for students to submit their
applications here:
http://
code.google.com/soc/student_step1.html

I'll be acting as official mentor for the students, though
I'm also 
hoping for support from the wider AT community. So if you
know any 
suitable students please encourage them to apply or if you
think you can 
help in some other way such as with testing or advice,
please join in! 
Let's welcome these students to our community and give them
a good start 
on their projects!

- Henrik
Ubuntu Accessibility Team
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[ Henrik Nilsen Omma ]
> I'll be acting as official mentor for the students,
though I'm also
> hoping for support from the wider AT community.

I am already step  upas a mentor for KDe-related
accessibility SoC projects, 
and of course I would be willing to co-mentor any
accessibility SoC projects 
received at Ubuntu (at least if they are not planned to be
Gtk-only).

Olaf

-- 
Olaf Jan Schmidt, KDE Accessibility co-maintainer, open
standards 
accessibility networker, Protestant theology student and
webmaster of 
http://accessibility.kd
e.org/ and http://www.amen-online.de/

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Olaf Jan Schmidt wrote:
> I am already step  upas a mentor for KDe-related
accessibility SoC projects, 
> and of course I would be willing to co-mentor any
accessibility SoC projects 
> received at Ubuntu (at least if they are not planned to
be Gtk-only).
>   
Cool! Now let's just hope we get some good applicants  

I'm not planning to make anything that is GTK-only. Our
group is small 
enough as it is, so we should work hard to avoid
fragmentation. The plan 
for the config panel for example is to have the option for
multiple 
front ends.

- Henrik
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Hi Henrik,

Cool stuff. 

For the on-screen keyboard, please consider doing something
like "gok 
--simple" (assuming folks like David Bolter agree). 
There is enough 
overlap that keeping common code common would be nice (vs.
fragmenting 
approaches).  Also, with your use case for the student Liza,
I think she 
would want most of the current features of GOK, though
without 
necessarily the configuration GUI.  The last sentence of the
Liza use 
case confuses me - how does she navigate the GNOME desktop
and web 
perfectly without using an on-screen keyboard. 

For the magnifier, I'd be very keen to work with whoever
you find on 
this.  I was involved in the inLARGE magnifier for
Macintosh, and have 
been thinking a lot about magnification for UNIX.

Also, you might consider a fourth project: technology for
people with 
cognitive impairments - something that's a big hole right
now in UNIX.  
Please see things like Read&Write Gold from TextHelp,
which provide 
assistance for folks with dyslexia, and with a variety of
other print 
disorders.  See http://www.texthelp.com/rwg.asp?q1=products&q2=rwg


Regards,

Peter Korn
Accessibility Architect,
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
>
> (sorry for cross-posting again)
>
> The Ubuntu Accessibility Team is hosting up to three
development 
> projects during this year's Summer of Code. The SoC
scheme is an 
> opportunity to  break some new ground and so we are
focusing on new 
> tools. There are  technologies coming on line such as
XGL/compiz which 
> we should take advantage of to provide a higher level
of accessibility.
>
> The three main ideas are:
>
>  * An XGL/compiz-based desktop magnifier
>  * A simple and user-friendly on-screen keyboard
>  * A common Assistive Technology configuration utility
>
> See the Ubuntu SoC2006 page for details: 
> https://wiki.ub
untu.com/GoogleSoC2006
>
> There is still time for students to submit their
applications here:
> http://
code.google.com/soc/student_step1.html
>
> I'll be acting as official mentor for the students,
though I'm also 
> hoping for support from the wider AT community. So if
you know any 
> suitable students please encourage them to apply or if
you think you can 
> help in some other way such as with testing or advice,
please join in! 
> Let's welcome these students to our community and give
them a good start 
> on their projects!
>
> - Henrik
> Ubuntu Accessibility Team
> _______________________________________________
> kde-accessibility mailing list
> kde-accessibilitykde.org
> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-accessibility
>   

_______________________________________________
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kde-accessibilitykde.org
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Peter Korn wrote:
> Hi Henrik,
>
> Cool stuff.
> For the on-screen keyboard, please consider doing
something like "gok 
> --simple" (assuming folks like David Bolter
agree).  

Yes. This is difficult though, since I can understand both
sides of the 
fence here. My biased (gok maintainer) opinion is that we
can go further 
pooling our efforts.  A gok --simple, or gok --kiosk flag
has been 
discussed a lot but we haven't had the spare cycles... and
of course I 
would welcome any help there!  I know gok could only benefit
from having 
Henrik's help.

best,
David
> There is enough overlap that keeping common code common
would be nice 
> (vs. fragmenting approaches).  Also, with your use case
for the 
> student Liza, I think she would want most of the
current features of 
> GOK, though without necessarily the configuration GUI. 
The last 
> sentence of the Liza use case confuses me - how does
she navigate the 
> GNOME desktop and web perfectly without using an
on-screen keyboard.
> For the magnifier, I'd be very keen to work with
whoever you find on 
> this.  I was involved in the inLARGE magnifier for
Macintosh, and have 
> been thinking a lot about magnification for UNIX.
>
> Also, you might consider a fourth project: technology
for people with 
> cognitive impairments - something that's a big hole
right now in 
> UNIX.  Please see things like Read&Write Gold from
TextHelp, which 
> provide assistance for folks with dyslexia, and with a
variety of 
> other print disorders.  See 
> http://www.texthelp.com/rwg.asp?q1=products&q2=rwg
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Peter Korn
> Accessibility Architect,
> Sun Microsystems, Inc.
>>
>> (sorry for cross-posting again)
>>
>> The Ubuntu Accessibility Team is hosting up to
three development 
>> projects during this year's Summer of Code. The
SoC scheme is an 
>> opportunity to  break some new ground and so we are
focusing on new 
>> tools. There are  technologies coming on line such
as XGL/compiz 
>> which we should take advantage of to provide a
higher level of 
>> accessibility.
>>
>> The three main ideas are:
>>
>>  * An XGL/compiz-based desktop magnifier
>>  * A simple and user-friendly on-screen keyboard
>>  * A common Assistive Technology configuration
utility
>>
>> See the Ubuntu SoC2006 page for details: 
>> https://wiki.ub
untu.com/GoogleSoC2006
>>
>> There is still time for students to submit their
applications here:
>> http://
code.google.com/soc/student_step1.html
>>
>> I'll be acting as official mentor for the
students, though I'm also 
>> hoping for support from the wider AT community. So
if you know any 
>> suitable students please encourage them to apply or
if you think you 
>> can help in some other way such as with testing or
advice, please 
>> join in! Let's welcome these students to our
community and give them 
>> a good start on their projects!
>>
>> - Henrik
>> Ubuntu Accessibility Team
>> _______________________________________________
>> kde-accessibility mailing list
>> kde-accessibilitykde.org
>> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-accessibility
>>   
>
> _______________________________________________
> gnome-accessibility-list mailing list
> gnome-accessibility-listgnome.org
> http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-acce
ssibility-list

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kde-accessibility mailing list
kde-accessibilitykde.org
https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-accessibility

Peter Korn wrote:
> For the on-screen keyboard, please consider doing
something like "gok 
> --simple" (assuming folks like David Bolter
agree).  There is enough 
> overlap that keeping common code common would be nice
That is certainly an option. I will need to discuss this
with the 
student who takes it on, who will clearly have some input on
the 
approach we take. For one thing, we might go with a
different language 
such as python.

Another area where I'm considering a fairly radical
departure is in 
rendering the keys. It might make sense to do that directly
in Cairo or 
similar so we can get better performance and more
flexibility in the 
shape, placement and look of the keys. Starting with a clean
slate is a 
good opportunity to try out new ideas and technologies that
you might 
otherwise feel too constricted to try.

> Also, with your use case for the student Liza, I think
she would want 
> most of the current features of GOK, though without
necessarily the 
> configuration GUI.  The last sentence of the Liza use
case confuses me 
> - how does she navigate the GNOME desktop and web
perfectly without 
> using an on-screen keyboard.
The key there is that she has a head-pointer device like the
Headmouse 
[1]. With that she can click on anything on the desktop or
in a browser. 
She can start applications, move windows, make drawings,
etc. She can 
pretty much do anything with the standard mouse pointer
apart from 
entering text. So what Liza needs is a basic QWERTY
on-screen keyboard 
that can feed keystrokes into applications, but doesn't get
in her way 
when she is not entering text.

[1] http://ori
n.com/access/headmouse/index.htm
> For the magnifier, I'd be very keen to work with
whoever you find on 
> this.  I was involved in the inLARGE magnifier for
Macintosh, and have 
> been thinking a lot about magnification for UNIX.
That's great, I'll certainly take you up on that   I
understand Gunnar 
was working on something as well, so we should coordinate.
> Also, you might consider a fourth project: technology
for people with 
> cognitive impairments - something that's a big hole
right now in 
> UNIX.  Please see things like Read&Write Gold from
TextHelp, which 
> provide assistance for folks with dyslexia, and with a
variety of 
> other print disorders.  See 
> http://www.texthelp.com/rwg.asp?q1=products&q2=rwg
I must admit that this is something I haven't looked into
very much, and 
so I didn't make plans for it. I would probably need a
better 
understanding of the issues before I could be a useful
mentor. Perhaps 
next year 

I proposed three SoC projects, but realistically it looks
like I may be 
able to implement just two. That's still a good fraction of
the total 
Ubuntu SoC projects. In fact I've only had student
applications for the 
SOK and magnifier so far. I guess I can see how the config
panel can 
seem boring to students.

If any other distros or gnome or kde will have SoC students
working on 
AT as well then we should definitely coordinate our efforts.

- Henrik
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kde-accessibilitykde.org
https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-accessibility

David Bolter wrote:
> Peter Korn wrote:
>> Hi Henrik,
>>
>> Cool stuff.
>> For the on-screen keyboard, please consider doing
something like "gok 
>> --simple" (assuming folks like David Bolter
agree).  
>
> Yes. This is difficult though, since I can understand
both sides of 
> the fence here. My biased (gok maintainer) opinion is
that we can go 
> further pooling our efforts.  A gok --simple, or gok
--kiosk flag has 
> been discussed a lot but we haven't had the spare
cycles... and of 
> course I would welcome any help there!  I know gok
could only benefit 
> from having Henrik's help.
Thanks. I should point out that I'm not a programmer
though. I can 
invent features and guide students, but I can only be of
limited help at 
the code-face.

- Henrik
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kde-accessibilitykde.org
https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-accessibility

Henrik Nilsen Omma wrote:
> David Bolter wrote:
>   
>> Peter Korn wrote:
>>     
>>> Hi Henrik,
>>>
>>> Cool stuff.
>>> For the on-screen keyboard, please consider
doing something like "gok 
>>> --simple" (assuming folks like David
Bolter agree).  
>>>       
>> Yes. This is difficult though, since I can
understand both sides of 
>> the fence here. My biased (gok maintainer) opinion
is that we can go 
>> further pooling our efforts.  A gok --simple, or
gok --kiosk flag has 
>> been discussed a lot but we haven't had the spare
cycles... and of 
>> course I would welcome any help there!  I know gok
could only benefit 
>> from having Henrik's help.
>>     
> Thanks. I should point out that I'm not a programmer
though. I can 
> invent features and guide students, but I can only be
of limited help at 
> the code-face.
>
>   

Those are all great potential contributions.

D

> - Henrik
> _______________________________________________
> kde-accessibility mailing list
> kde-accessibilitykde.org
> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-accessibility
>   

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