Re: [libreoffice-accessibility] Laws and standards

Hi Marc,

At 20:42 2/12/2010, you wrote:
> Le 2010-12-02 11:27, Christophe Strobbe a écrit :
> > (...)
> > At 07:41 2/12/2010, Marc Paré wrote:
> >> (...)
> >>
> >> This seems like quite an important developer detail to work out right
> >> from the very start. Are the developers aware of accessibility
> >> concerns? Also from a marketing point of view, if we are to market
> >> the suite to governmental agencies subscribing to accessibility rules
> >> in their procurement of software applications, then we should  be
> >> discussing this sooner than later.
> >
> > I don't know to what extent the LibreOffice developers are aware of
> > accessibility.
> > As far as I understand, LibreOffice accessibility doesn't start from
> > scratch. See <http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Accessibility>.
> > However, the problem with using the Java Accessibility API on Windows
> > is that screen readers don't support it very well. NVDA and
> > Window-Eyes are said to provide better support than JAWS (which many
> > consider to be the dominant screen reader in the English-speaking
> > world), but even access with NVDA is not considered excellent. The
> > OpenOffice.org accessibility page mentions plans to implement the
> > IAccessible2 API, but I don't know if the project ever got started on
> > this.
> > Access to OpenOffice.org (I don't know if LibreOffice has changed the
> > UI) with VoiceOver on Mac OS and with Orca on GNOME seems to work better.
> > (...)
>
> Hi Christophe: Thanks for the great information. 
> Yes there is need for a wiki on this.
>
> Re: windows and java, there was some talk of 
> trying to move the suite away from java 
> dependency. I don't know how much this would affect AT on LibreOffice.


I don't know where all the Java dependencies are. 
I think the Java Accessibility API is just one of 
them; extension development is another one that I 
know, but there may be other areas that I don't know.
Moving away from Java for anyting in the UI (and 
some extensions also use Java to create a UI) 
means that LibreOffice would need to implement 
another accessibility API, like IAccessible2 
(maintained by the Linux Foundation 
<http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/accessibility/iaccessible2>; 
this API complements the old MSAA) or Microsoft 
User Interface Automatin (UIA). I have absolutely 
no idea how much work this would require.

Best regards,

Christophe


--
Christophe Strobbe
K.U.Leuven - Dept. of Electrical Engineering - SCD
Research Group on Document Architectures
Kasteelpark Arenberg 10 bus 2442
B-3001 Leuven-Heverlee
BELGIUM
tel: +32 16 32 85 51
http://www.docarch.be/
Twitter: @RabelaisA11y
---
"Better products and services through end-user 
empowerment" www.usem-net.eu - www.stand4all.eu
---
Please don't invite me to Facebook, Quechup or 
other "social networks". You may have agreed to 
their "privacy policy", but I haven't.


--
E-mail to accessibility+help@libreoffice.org for instructions on how to unsubscribe
List archives are available at http://www.libreoffice.org/lists/accessibility/
All messages you send to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted