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OSA Roadmap

Other points

  • JS+??: Some discussion about pros/cons of web-based vs. operating systems
  • RS: On platform should focus on things like TTS that can't currently be done over the web but the applications will be web-based
  • ARIA is in first last call - ~70% done - but HTML5 integration coming up - SVG making use - used in XUL components in Firebug - Implementation Guide being produced - 2 gaps is not enough tools (so a new open source tool is being developed) and the other gap is education (getting people to understand that access is more than alt tags...but about interoperability) - HTML5 Canvas issue and potential solutions
  • New section needed on Language support - 100 to 200 langs in significant use
  • GV: Would like a major push on open source TTS
  • TTS on mobile: isn't open source TTS on mobile
  • Moblin(?)
  • Ubuntu Netbooks remix-basically Gnome- but app launcher is written in Clutter - not accessible
  • Simple apps might be more accesible in several ways
  • Big gaps in open desktop:
    • Media:
      • PDF
    • Application Tasks:
      • Email?
      • MIDI tool
      • Skype (there is open source telephony)
    • ATs
      • Voice Rec
      • TTS
    • Community support (friends, service orgs, training etc. recommending proprietary packages)
    • Testing - to prevent regressions in access support
    • Public awareness
    • Policy

Operating Systems

Operating Systems Link Status Comments Gaps
Linux (Ubuntu, etc.) http://www.linux.org/
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/en/Accessibility
 - accessibility much better than 2yrs ago
- audio is generally a problem
- lots of users rely on distros to provide accessibility out of the box - but when distros regress it turns off users quickly (so responsible integration into distros is important)
- proliferation of OSs can be a problem
 
Vinux http://vinux.org.uk/ Active A Customized Version of Ubuntu for Visually Impaired Users  
Ubuntu Accessibility http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu/accessibility - distro has an accessibility staff person (diff than other distros)
- "downstream" project; 6 month distro cycle
 
OpenSolaris http://opensolaris.org/
http://opensolaris.org/os/project/indiana/status/accessibility/AccessibleLiveCd/ 		-
-
 

Platform Accessibiltiy APIs

Application/AT APIs Link Status Comments Gaps
IAccessible2 (Windows) IAccessible2 Home Page Version 1.1 is complete Added IAccessibleTable2 and IAccessibleTableCell.  This is in support of ARIA grids and treegrids and has been implemented in Firefox 3.6.  
ATK/AT-SPI (Linux)
ATK v1.26.0
AT-SPI C Bindings
     
  • Notes: We should record completenes - 508 refresh is trying to get accessibility APIs to add strong access API requirement

Graphical Environments on Multiple OSs

Graphical Environments on Multiple OSs Link Status Comments Gaps
Gnome http://www.gnome.org/
http://projects.gnome.org/accessibility/index.html 		- Going fairly well
- Several research efforts (eg. CORBA->Dbus - towards a Linux-wide solution;)
- Speech Dispatcher work
WW: Getting to a tipping point where mainstream devs thinking more about access.
 
KDE http://kde.org/      

Assistive Technologies

Multi-Platform Assistive Technologies Link Status Comments Gaps
Dasher http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher/      
Virtual Magnifying Glass http://magnifier.sourceforge.net/      
WebAnywhere
http://webanywhere.cs.washington.edu/
     
Windows Assistive Technologies Link Status Comments Gaps
NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access) http://www.nvda-project.org/      
AccessAT (OS AT Bundle from abilitynet) http://www.abilitynet.org.uk      
Vu-Bar http://www.fxc.btinternet.co.uk/assistive.htm      
Power Reader http://www.projectpossibility.org/viewProject.php?id=1      
Word Predictor  http://www.projectpossibility.org/viewProject.php?id=5      
AccessApps (runs from memory stick)  http://www.rsc-ne-scotland.ac.uk/eduapps/accessapps.php      
Thunder Screen Reader
http://www.screenreader.net      
Linux/OpenSolaris (GNOME, Ubuntu, KDE) Assistive Technologies Link Status Comments Gaps
GNOME Onscreen Keyboard (GOK) http://www.gok.ca/      
Orca http://live.gnome.org/Orca/      
MouseTweaks http://live.gnome.org/MouseTweaks/      
MouseTrap http://live.gnome.org//MouseTrap      
VizAudio http://2009.hfoss.org/VizAudio      
GNOME Mag http://live.gnome.org/GnomeMag   Magnifier that operates standalone and also used by Orca. Potentially replaced by work-in-progress enhancements to http://live.gnome.org/GnomeShell  
GNOME Speech http://live.gnome.org/Orca/GnomeSpeech   TTS wrapper used by Orca  
Speech Dispatcher http://www.freebsoft.org/speechd   Potential replacement for GNOME Speech  
BrlTTY http://mielke.cc/brltty/   Braille device driver that operates standalone and also used by Orca.  
XKB/AccessX     AccessDOS-like functionality built into X Windows.  
KMouseTool, KMag, KMouth http://accessibility.kde.org/aids/      
Sites that Aggregate OS ATs Link Status Comments Gaps
Oatsoft http://www.oatsoft.org
     
Project Possibility
http://www.projectpossibility.org/index.php      
FX Software http://www.fxc.btinternet.co.uk/assistive.htm      
LaZee Tek http://www.lazeetek.com/html/links.html      
Fullmeasure http://fullmeasure.co.uk/      
JISC TechDis http://www.techdis.ac.uk/getfreesoftware  
 
Raising the Floor
http://raisingthefloor.net/projects/masterlist/
  Access Feature MasterList  

Web Toolkits

Web Toolkits Link Status Comments Gaps
Dojo http://www.dojotoolkit.org/ -"core" widgets enabled for low-vision and keyboard (work with high contrast mode and font changes)
- work is ongoing for some DOJO extensions
JavaScript toolkit for easily building interactive Web Applications. The core widget set (found in the dijit directory) has been made keyboard, low vision and screen reader accessible via ARIA.   Dojox DataGrid widget is also implemented with basic accessibility.  Accessibility Statement at [http://docs.dojocampus.org/dijit-a11y-statement.
] Widget set Documentation: [http://docs.dojocampus.org/dijit/index
] 		 
jQuery http://jquery.com/ - approx. half of widgets have keyboard access and ARIA
- Ongoing 		The jQuery community is actively engaged in added ARIA and keyboard navigation support to the jQuery UI widgets. Current support includes the Progress Bar, Dialog, Slider, and Accordion widgets.  
Fluid Infusion http://fluidproject.org/products/infusion/ 1.1.1 Infusion is a JavaScript application framework built from the ground up with usability and accessibility in mind. Infusion is markup-driven and highly interoperable, including support for ARIA and unobtrusive templating on client side.  
YUI Yahoo!User Interface Library
http://developer.yahoo.com/yui
-3.0 beta 1
- final release should be fully accessible
-lots of underlying things besides widgets (manage focus, keyboard support, resizing)
-chose not to build ARIA directly in - ARIA done with plugins - so ARIA can be turned on and off
 
EXTjs   - not accessible yet    
ICEfaces   - not accessible yet    
Woodstock   - not accessible yet    
GWT (Google Web Toolkit)        

Desktop Toolkits

Desktop Toolkits
Link Status Comments
Clutter
  -not accessible
 
GTK+ (via ATK, AT-SPI, GAIL) http://www.gtk.org/ -in general accessible
 
QT (KDE version of GTK+)
  - waiting on CORBA>Dbus
 
XUL https://developer.mozilla.org/en/XUL -has some bugs open - but generally OK
- like DOJO for the desktop
- ORCA has regression tests
Java http://java.sun.com/javase/technologies/accessibility/accessbridge/index.jsp
http://live.gnome.org/Java%20Access%20Bridge
http://live.gnome.org/Accessibility/JavaATKWrapper 		- Java Access API not updated for some time
- Java>Gnome bridge is being rewritten
- Java>Windows is fairly old - AEGIS research effort to see what would be required in a replacement
- Java>MacOS bridge - no status report
- Java>Oracle
SWT (Standard Widget Toolkit) - another java toolkit
-pretty accessible
 
AXSJAX
http://code.google.com/p/google-axsjax/
  leverages AJAX techniques to inject accessibility support into Web 2.0 applications
UNO Widget set   - supported on Gnome
- Mac (in progress)
- some Win support 		-used by OpenOffice
AXS?
     

General accessibility libraries

Libraries Link Status Comments Gaps
eSpeak http://espeak.sourceforge.net/ - ongoing, some dev.
- Cross-platform TTS library used by assistive technologies on Windows and UNIX and GNU/Linux systems
- small, fast, support several languages
- forment (sp?) engine
- hard to get support to do the work of adding languages
- WIN and MacOS has more built-in TTS
- languages missing (Arabic, etc.)
- for speech disabilies (and some cognitive impairments) concatenative engines often work better.
- mainstream vendors have moved to concatenative over forment
Festival
    - TTS  
Flight(sp?)
    - TTS  
Liblouis http://code.google.com/p/liblouis/ -
- text>contracted Braille in mamny languages
- most used Braille translation library - used in ORCA, NVDA
- Braille important for blind literacy worldwide and deaf-blind
 
Sphinx
  -Sphinx3 in C
-Sphinx4 in Java
- Speech-to-text
- lacking integration with desktop (command+control)
Voice Gestures http://sourceforge.net/projects/voicegestures/ - alpha (inactive) Discrete speech to text engine - requires training
- not production-ready
Aibicom http://komodoopenlab.com/use/aibicom/ - released - Single-switch control library
- can be used to enable gaming, drawing, virtual object manipulation 		 

Accessibility Testing Tools

Web Accessibility Test Tools Link Status Comments Gaps
Firebug Add-On https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843      
Firebug Add-On with ARIA support http://wiki.codetalks.org/wiki/index.php/Repository_Tools#Firebug%20Accessibility      
AChecker http://www.atutor.ca/achecker/ - new PHP ver. is open source
- monitoring module coming
- incl. check authoring tool, guideline authoring tool
- multimedia checks, lang. use checks
WAVE Firefox extension
http://wave.webaim.org
 
 
Open Ajax Alliance Accessibility Tools Task Force Rules and Best Practices http://www.openajax.org/member/wiki/Accessibility
a Code repository is coming


Speclenium
http://monotonous.org/specular/   - tests browsers for ARIA implementation
 
Webaim WAVE Toolbar
http://wave.webaim.org/toolbar - for FF
   
Firefox Accessibility Extension
  - for FF
   
Built-in Accessibility Test Tools Link Status Comments Gaps
Accessibility Tools Framework (ACTF) for Eclipse
http://www.eclipse.org/actf/      
Net beans work (PK?)
       
A-Designer (RS?)
    -for ODF?
 
Platform Accessibility Test Tools Link Status Comments Gaps
AccProbe http://www.eclipse.org/actf/downloads/tools/accprobe/ 0.4.4 is now available with support for IAccessibleTable2 and IAccessibleTableCell
   
Accerciser http://live.gnome.org/Accerciser      

Accessibility Test Rules (mentionned by RS)

Accessible Content Authoring Support

Accessible Content Authoring Support Link Status Comments Gaps
CapScribe http://www.capscribe.ca/   - for captions and audio descriptions
 
Dots http://git.gnome.org/cgit/dots - proof of concept    
Liblouis http://code.google.com/p/liblouis/      
TinyMCE
    - javascript plugin
- implements some of ATAG2
 
OpenOffice
       
Magpie
       

Desktop File Formats

Desktop Document Formats Link Status Comments Gaps
ODF OASIS ODF Public Site  
 
OOXML     - improvements made in standardization process
-
- still some gaps (e.g., nav order in slides, contains links with some semi-proprietary standards (e.g. clipboard))
PDF
       

Desktop Applications

Productivity Software Link Status Comments Gaps
OpenOffice.org http://www.openoffice.org/
http://openoffice.org/access
 Work is ongoing and accelerating OOo's supports AT. Good AT support on GNOME and MAC OSX. Windows AT support not sufficient, plan is to support IA2 in the future.  
Browsers Link Status Comments Gaps
Firefox http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/
http://www.accessfirefox.org/ 		     
E-Mail Link Status Comments Gaps
Evolution http://projects.gnome.org/evolution/      
Thunderbird http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/      
Readers Link Status Comments Gaps
         
Instant Messaging Clients Link Status Comments Gaps
Pidgin http://www.pidgin.im/      

Web Applications

Web Applications Link Status Comments Gaps
Sakai http://sakaiproject.org/      
Moodle http://moodle.org/      
ATutor http://www.atutor.ca/      
uPortal http://www.jasig.org/uportal      
OpenCast http://www.opencastproject.org/      

Mobile Accessibility

Accessible Gaming

Accessible Gaming Link Status Comments
Gaps
e-Bility http://www.e-bility.com/links/games.php      
ORB http://www.projectpossibility.org/viewProject.php?id=7      
Orbit http://www.projectpossibility.org/viewProject.php?id=8      

Hardware Devices

Research-Level Work

Evaluation, evidence and research

Documentation

Education and Outreach

Education and Outreach Link Status Comments
2006 Marco Fioretti posting http://www.linux.com/archive/feature/52819    
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya Master of Accessibility and Interoperability of ISS Program http://www.technosite.es/masterUOC/index.html    

Help, Service and Support

Funding

Funding Link Status Comments
SARAI FLOSS Fellowships http://www.sarai.net/fellowships/floss    

Other Resources

Resources Link Status Comments
UNESCO Free & Open Source Software Portal http://www.unesco-ci.org/cgi-bin/portals/foss/page.cgi?d=1    
Planet-Accessibility Blog Feeds http://www.planet-a11y.net    
OSS Watch team blog - Accessibility Category http://osswatch.jiscinvolve.org/category/accessibility/    
Project Possibility on Google Code http://code.google.com/hosting/search?q=projects%40projectpossibility&filter=0&start=10    
AbilityNet http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/    
AEGIS Project http://www.aegis-project.eu/    
Raising the Floor http://raisingthefloor.net/    
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1 Comment

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  1. Jun 28, 2012

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