LiveCdAccess

Revision 21 as of 2006-08-24 16:24:17

Clear message

Live CD Access

Summary

Further improve the Live CD access features.

Rationale

This spec is a continuation of https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+spec/accessible-livecd

Use cases

  • Sarah has low vision and finds the current live CD boot menu difficult to use. She read on the website that she should boot the CD and press F5 but the menu that pops up then is too small to be of use to her.

  • Oscar is blind and has a similar problem with the boot menu as Sarah. Some audio feedback, either spoken words or distinctive tones, will allow both Sarah and Oscar to perform the Live CD boot and system install independently.
  • Henrik is very pleased with the default support for sticky keys on the new live CD. With that he can boot the CD and start using the Gnome menus directly and also launch and complete the Ubiquity install process independently. Some areas of the Ubiquity installer are a bit cumbersome to navigate with the keyboard and should be tightened up.
  • All users: After the install is complete, the access features that were enabled in the Live session are no longer turned on. This means these users cannot actually start using the system until someone else comes along and activates the access features.

Scope

For Edgy we will expand on the accessibility of the Live CD by:

  • Better provisions in the gfxboot menu for the visually impaired
  • Allow acessibility profiles used during the live CD session to be installed to the HD

Also see related specs: new access technologies (see [::Edgy Access]) and derivative versions (see [:KubuntuAccessibility:KubuntuAccessibility] and [:Accessibility/Specs/XubuntuAccessibility:XubuntuAccessibility]).

Design

  • Provide some useful audio feedback for each menu option. The sounds are not spoken words and thus do not require translation. The meaning of the different sounds can be found on a web page at access.ubuntu.com, which would have an explanation in plain-text.

Implementation

  • gfxboot menu audio feedback: create 6 different sounds based on the standard ubuntu desktop sounds. Convert to mod format for use with gfxboot. Some mod files have been made by Sheik Yerbouti of the [http://www.ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=128 Ubuntu Studio Team]. Here: attachment:menusounds.tar.gz

  • Install settings to HD: The final usecase/problem has been reported as a bug in casper and should be relatively easy to address: https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/casper/+bug/50319

  • Conduct accessibility testing of Ubuquity to ensure that it can be navigated with the keyboard and speaks relevant information via Orca.

Outstanding issues

Deferred items

  • For the gfxboot accessibility menu, use large icons that depict the various disabilities, with text written underneath each icon. -- Deferred to Edgy+1 due to complexity of implementation and because the use of sounds really covers this use case as well.

attachment:NewBootMenu2.png

[https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Accessibility/Specs/LiveCdAccess?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=NewBootMenu2.svg SVG version] - based on highviz icons by Jakub 'jimmac' Steiner.

  • multilingual speech synthesis -- Use a smaller speech engine like espeak to fit more languages on the Live CD and add more language options to fesdtival (or free mbrola voices?)


CategorySpec