Making the GNOME 3.0 desktop accessible: building accessibility into GNOME Shell and its UI libraries.

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Alejandro Piñeiro [email protected]

Making the GNOME 3.0 Accessible: Building Accessibility into Gnome-Shell and its UI Libraries

Introduction: GNOME

GNOME● Desktop environment

● Composed of free and open source software

● Heavily emphasis on make environment as user-friendly as possible

● As in any other desktop you can browse files, play music and videos, read the email, etc

GNOME is ...● Extended: most of Linux distributions include it

● Free Software: part of the GNU project

● Usable: defines a global Human Interface Guidelines

● Accessible: accessibility has been a central consideration from the very early days

Define accessibility● Means helping people with disabilities to

participate in substantial life activities.

● Work

● Use of services and products

● Access to information

Going technical● Key aspects of accessibility:

● Provide programmatic access to the features and capabilities of application objects

● Keyboard navigation● Theming

● GNOME includes libraries and support framework that allow all people to utilize all the functionality of GNOME user environment.

General GNOME 2.0 arquitecture

GNOME releases

Normal releases● GNOME policy is a release each 6 months

● Free Software!

● User can obtain a stable updated environment each 6 months● And each day if they are cutting-edge users

● Incremental updates

Major releases● Done to introduce major changes.

● Can be a breakage of previous state

● History:● 1997: GNOME project started● 1999: GNOME 1.0 release● 2002: GNOME 2.0 release

GNOME 3.0 is coming!● Planned to March/April 2011

● More than 9 years since the last major release

● Several packages and libraries will be dropped

● Several common programs on GNOME 2.0 will not be available● A lot of work was done in order to provide proper

equivalent programs

Desktop interface

Gnome panel● GNOME 2.0 uses the usual desktop metaphor

● Monitor as the user desktop● Objects like documents and folders can be places

● Document can be opened into a window● Represents a paper copy of the document placed

on the desktop

Nothing really new

gnome-shell● Defining technology of GNOME 3.0 desktop

● Provides a new and innovative way to interact with the desktop

● Take advantage of modern graphics hardware

Shiny future

Problems

Gnome-shell is so new...● … that uses new and fancy technologies

● Not initially supported on the GNOME 2.0 accessibility stack

● Gnome shell developers are focusing on gnome-shell itself● But they have included accessibility in his roadmap

Solutions● A11y community started to work in provide

gnome shell a11y support

● Cally could be used to access UI elements● Required to screen readers

● A magnifier feature was introduced● (Next presentation)

… but● I would be really likely that accessibility support

will not be ready for GNOME 3.0

● Anyway, work will continue

● GNOME will maintain his 6 month policy, in 6 months GNOME 3.2 will be there

DEMO

References● http://live.gnome.org/Accessibility/

● http://live.gnome.org/Accessibility/GNOME3

● http://projects.gnome.org/accessibility/

● http://live.gnome.org/GnomeShell/

QUESTIONS?