CommonATConfig

Revision 13 as of 2006-11-11 09:56:35

Clear message

Summary

Simplify the assistive technology settings in gnome. Clearly 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. 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).

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

Identify the rough edges in a11y 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 a 'More settings' tab to the gnome-at-prefs that links to these other options.

Design

  • Chart the existing a11y 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.
  • 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.

Implementation

Outstanding 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.

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