GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 70798
Accessibility patch for pager.
Last modified: 2004-12-22 21:47:04 UTC
The widget WnckPager cannot be manipulated using the keyboard so cannot be used to switch between workspaces using the keyboard. One must use window manager short cuts to do it.
Does it matter that the keyboard shortcuts for the pager are implemented in the WM process? It's all the same to users.
The problem is that the WnckPager widget provides functionality to non-disabled users but this functionality is not available to disabled users. Apart from the non-ability to manipulate the widget from the keyboard, the information which this widget gives to a sighted user is not available to a non-sighted user.
OK, what I'm saying is that the pager is essentially a mini-view of windows onscreen, and a shortcut for moving said windows around. i.e. it is a device that proxies for the window manager. My point would be that it's a very visual-centric device for doing that. Its whole purpose is that it's a mini _display_ of the windows onscreen. I would expect that a blind user wants some other kind of device for the same purpose, such as an audio summary of the windows. And there is no reason they want the audio summary to be an audio summary of a mini view of the windows, vs an audio summary of the actual windows. i.e. what is the point of getting the pager involved; just have a "screen reader pager". The visual pager would be a really stupid intermediary. i.e. I want to hear the screen reader say, "new workspace, windows are "x" "y" "z"" I don't want to have to first tab to the pager then have the pager say "mini workspace, has mini icons for windows "x" "y" "z"". Or if using voice control, I want to say "focus window "x"", I don't want to say "focus panel, tab, tab, tab, tab, focus mini-window "x"" Or equivalently I want to just say "workspace 2" and have it switch, I don't want to tab to the pager first. The whole point of libwnck is to export the info from the window manager, giving us multiple ways of interacting with the window manager. So writing a window manager access module that is functionally equivalent to the pager should be simple. I simply don't see what functionality the pager provides that is in addition to the WM functionality; its functionality is entirely redundant with WM functionality, it is simply presented in a "mini" or smaller-screen-area format. The size of the information makes no difference at all to a blind user, so the pager has _zero_ functionality for them, right? It's just a useless repeat of the same thing the WM does.
Have to agree with Havoc on this one; it would seem people working on keynav probably have better things to spend their time on.
I'm even going to NOTABUG this unless someone can give a nonvisual feature that the pager makes available that can't be done via direct window manager access. I think focusing the pager should just give a tooltip like "mini-display of windows on the screen" and there should be no navigation of the subparts of the pager.
Created attachment 7298 [details] Provides accessiblity support to libwnck's components used by pager applet and also adds accessibility features to pager applet.
The above patch has been attached in tar format as binary file, so "showattachment.cgi" has to be moved to *.tar to untar the patch.
Default button is not set in the pager applet's property box which has to be activated on pressing enter key.
Created attachment 7373 [details] [review] Patch for the above stated bug, to set a default-button for the property box.
Um, OK... reopening and adding PATCH keyword. Havoc, feel free to close/reject if you don't like the patch.
Pls use the following updated patch for: + Providing accessiblity support to libwnck's components used by pager applet + Adding accessibility features such as tooltips, accessible description and atk relation to pager applet + Setting default button that has to be activated on pressing enter key in the preferences dialog The patch is added in tar format as binary file. (Ignore the previous patches #7298, #7373)
Created attachment 7470 [details] updated patch as mentioned above
Hmm, I'd forgotten about this patch. Is there any chance it can be in diff format instead of tar format? Using -N to get new files?
Havoc, following are the patches (3 Nos) in diff format. These patches provides accessibility features as stated above on "2002-03-30". The patches are obtained using "diff -pNaur libwnck/* libwnck-new/*", and that for new files using "diff -pNaur /dev/null libwnck/libwnck/access/*".
Created attachment 8619 [details] [review] Patch for changes in libwnck/*
Created attachment 8620 [details] [review] Patch for new files in libwnck/*
Created attachment 8621 [details] [review] patch for changes in gnome-panel/applets/gen_util/*
Created attachment 8622 [details] README File
Patch applied, with some fairly heavy changes (see ChangeLog). It might be good to test the current version and report any further issues. Should file new bugs for those issues though, rather than reopening this one.