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mwhapples

Member

Registered: 2010-09-30

Posts: 4

Accessibility issues in gnome 3.0 from testing

I have tried updating to gnome 3.0 in testing, however it has some accessibility issues for blind users.

The first issue is that at-spi2-core does not include the pyatspi bindings required by orca. A package for this really could do with being made. Sources can be found at ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/pyatspi/2.0/pyatspi-2.0.0.tar.gz

I don't think it will be hard to make a package of pyatspi, however it is something which needs doing. Where should I report this?

There are some other accessibility issues in gnome 3.0 (eg. applications started after the orca screen reader do not seem to be accessible with orca) but I think these issues may be problems upstream. So for these issues I don't think anything can be done until new versions are available.

wonder

Developer

From: Bucharest, Romania

Registered: 2006-07-05

Posts: 5,941

Website

Re: Accessibility issues in gnome 3.0 from testing

i'm really sorry for the quality of  accessibility in gnome. I promise that i will try to fix it asap.

I really want some feedback regarding our packages and how things can be improved, mostly regarding the steps of installation. Is important that this steps to be as small as possible.

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Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.

mwhapples

Member

Registered: 2010-09-30

Posts: 4

Re: Accessibility issues in gnome 3.0 from testing

Having a look at the package created for pyatspi, I think a few dependencies may need adjusting.
1. Orca imports the python bindings for at-spi2, so I think probably should have a dependency on pyatspi.
2. pyatspi is the python bindings for at-spi2, so I think needs at-spi2-core for pyatspi to work.
3. If 1 and 2 are correct, then does orca need a dependency on at-spi2-core as pyatspi gets that one.
4. I think when using at-spi2 orca depends on python-xlib.
5. Looking at the files contained in pyatspi and at-spi there may be a conflict between these two packages. I know at-spi2 is meant to eventually replace at-spi, but can these two actually coexist on a system or is it really a conflict. I'll check this one.

mwhapples

Member

Registered: 2010-09-30

Posts: 4

Re: Accessibility issues in gnome 3.0 from testing

Looking through packages, currently it would not be possible to have at-spi conflict with pyatspi/at-spi2-core as it would lead to unresolvable dependencies because of brltty.

In short if one tried to install orca, then at-spi2 stuff would be included because orca depends on that. Brltty would also be included as it is a dependency of orca, but brltty depends on at-spi.

I don't know how brltty would respond if at-spi were made an optional dependency. Strictly speaking at-spi isn't really needed for brltty to run, its only one screen driver for brltty, there are other screen drivers (eg. one for the linux text console). Probably also if making at-spi optional dependency for brltty, that probably also means atk should be optional as well.

As well as solving the above issue, I also have always felt its a bit much having to have all that X stuff installed when I may only want to use brltty in a text console.