CommonATConfig

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Revision 17 as of 2006-11-15 20:00:15
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Comment: design problems
Revision 18 as of 2006-11-27 12:27:26
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Editor: host-81-191-165-41
Comment: simplified, taking account of upstream work
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The assistive technology (AT) settings in gnome are currently spread out over several locations, making the features difficult to find. Some entries have multiple incarnations (like keyboard repeat rate). It is difficult to have a discussion about which features should be moved before we have a better classification of items (specifically to which degree they are general desktop setting or special assistive technology tools). The assistive technology (AT) settings in gnome are currently spread out over several locations, making the features difficult to find. Several new assistive technology applications are currently appearing like Orca, onBoard and LSR, some of which have overlapping features. It is important to present the option to the user in a clear way.
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Identify the rough edges in accessibility configuration and reach a consensus with the wider community (upstream) on how it should be refactored. Introduce limited modifications to the gnome dialogs and add two tabs to the gnome-at-prefs, one for the AT tools and one with links to related options. The individual AT tools will continue to have their separate configuration dialogs, linked to from the AT preferences (as is currently done with Orca and onBoard in Ubuntu). Upstream Gnome is currently redesigning the AT-preferences window by moving the AT-applications selection to 'Preferred Applications' and making it more general so that users can select from different ATs (assistive technologies) to start by default with Gnome. The individual AT tools will continue to have their separate configuration dialogs, linked to from the AT preferences (as is currently done with Orca and onBoard in Ubuntu).

In addition, we will introduce link buttons to common user settings related to accessibility.
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 * Divide the setting into better categories, taking special note of which can be considered general desktop settings and which are pure a11y items.
 * Move and restructure settings (this will be minor)
 * Add a 'more options' tab to the Assistive Technology Preferences dialog with links to launch the existing related items such as keyboard settings and themes.
 * '''Optional future work:''' Write a wizard which guides the user through the available accessibility settings.
  * Divide the setting into better categories, taking special note of which can be considered general desktop settings and which are pure a11y items.
  * Result: The current divisions are generally suitable, better links should be made.
 * From the AT-prefs page link to Keyboard, Mouse, Fonts and Themes settings and to the new Preffered Applications tab
 * Link back to accessibility from the Mouse dialog
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attachment:at-prefs-tab1.png [[BR]][[BR]]
attachment:at-prefs-tab2.png [[BR]][[BR]]
attachment:at-prefs-tab3.png
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'''Caption:''' '' Proposed Assistive Technology Preferences layout, expanded to 3 tabs to allow for a more flexible configuration of AT tools and links to related settings. (content in dashed lines represents future work pending upstream development). ''The Basic tab'' is used to switch on AT-SPI and similar system-wide settings. The ''Utilities tab'' lets you launch and configure Assistive technologies like Orca, GOK, onBoard, LSR. Installable items like Dasher could also be added. The ''Other Settings tab'' contains a collation of links to other Gnome system settings that people with disabilities might find useful but which also has other uses.'' attachment:at-prefs-no-tabs.png [[BR]][[BR]]

'''Caption:''' '' Proposed Assistive Technology Preferences layout, with launch buttons for related gnome settings.''
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 * Patches will be prepared for the various configuration dialogs and two sections added to at-prefs to tie it together.  * Add link buttons the at-prefs dialog.
 * Add a link button to {{{gnome-mouse-properties}}} pointing at tab #3 on {{{gnome-accessibility-keyboard-properties}}}
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 * Looking at these mockups, I predict the majority of potential users will not understand these parts:
  * "Basic", "Utilities", or "Other Settings" (they don't mean anything)
  * "Enable assistive technology" (that doesn't mean anything at all)
  * "Password dialogs as floating windows" (why would someone want to? and why not?)
  * "Launch Accessibility Guide..." (why would I want to do that?)
  * "AccessX" (that's ancient proprietary-Unix jargon)
  * "General" (that doesn't mean anything)
  * "General" (it's poor accessibility to have multiple controls with the same label).
 I suggest instead categorizing the options by disability type -- difficulty seeing, difficulty hearing, using the keyboard, etc. Within each category, describe each option by what it actually does. Then in the separate control panels for users in general (e.g. the Theme control panel and the Keyboard control panel), have an "Accessibility..." button that opens the relevant tab in the combined accessibility control panel. -- MatthewPaulThomas

Summary

Clarify the assistive technology settings in gnome. Identify where each options belongs, whether it is a general desktop setting with accessibility implications (such as font size) or a specialised assistive technology feature. Restructure the items to make navigating the options intuitive for groups with different perspectives.

Rationale

The assistive technology (AT) settings in gnome are currently spread out over several locations, making the features difficult to find. Several new assistive technology applications are currently appearing like Orca, onBoard and LSR, some of which have overlapping features. It is important to present the option to the user in a clear way.

Use cases

  • Gustav has slightly reduced vision so he likes to increase the font size on his system and select a suitable icon set. It would not occur to him to look for these items under 'Assistive Technology', but expects to find it with the fonts and theme settings.
  • Joanna has less vision than Gustav and uses a high contrast theme with large fonts and occasionally a magnifier. She knows she needs these features to use the computer. When a friends shows here Ubuntu she asks him to open the accessibility settings to look for them. They are pleased to finds all these features available in one place.

Scope

Upstream Gnome is currently redesigning the AT-preferences window by moving the AT-applications selection to 'Preferred Applications' and making it more general so that users can select from different ATs (assistive technologies) to start by default with Gnome. The individual AT tools will continue to have their separate configuration dialogs, linked to from the AT preferences (as is currently done with Orca and onBoard in Ubuntu).

In addition, we will introduce link buttons to common user settings related to accessibility.

Design

  • [:Accessibility/Projects/GnomeATconf:Chart] the existing accessibility settings (and related settings).

    • Divide the setting into better categories, taking special note of which can be considered general desktop settings and which are pure a11y items.
    • Result: The current divisions are generally suitable, better links should be made.
  • From the AT-prefs page link to Keyboard, Mouse, Fonts and Themes settings and to the new Preffered Applications tab
  • Link back to accessibility from the Mouse dialog

attachment:at-prefs-no-tabs.png BRBR

Caption: Proposed Assistive Technology Preferences layout, with launch buttons for related gnome settings.

Implementation

Unresolved issues

  • Upstream is discussing implementing a configuration option for the ATs to be started by default (see [http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=350263 bug 350263]) and improving the theme dialog to reduce the number of (rather similar) a11y themes. Upstream choices should be tracked here.


CategorySpec

Accessibility/Specs/CommonATConfig (last edited 2008-08-06 16:39:48 by localhost)