[Accessibility] NSF Proposal--Current Draft

[Kris Van Hees]

If I may second this, I do believe that mentioning Gnopernicus in this sense
would indeed be useful.  It is a good example of why standards will be useful
and it indicates that the main standards we're working towards (AT-SPI in
particular for Gnopernicus) are already at the core of ongoing development.
GOK and Dasher are more or less implied to be finished in the narrative of
the proposal.  A clear indication of ongoing development using the proposed
standards makes a good case for our existance.

	Kris

On Wed, May 05, 2004 at 11:58:27AM -0700, Peter Korn wrote:
> Hey Janina,
> 
> I understand why you removed my text on Gnopernicus - the benefits I note may 
> not be things experiences by existing Gnopernicus users.  However, I'm 
> concerned about leaving off all mention of it entirely.  The document notes:
> 
> > There are already several innovative assistive technologies that are taking advantage of components of this emerging standard which are already
> > available. These serve to illustrate the benefits which can reasonably be expected to acrue from an international conference addressing accessibility on
> > open platforms:
> > 
> > GOK, the dynamic GNOME On-Screen Keyboard uses
> >  AT-SPI and XKB functionality to provide a set of access features
> > that go far beyond any other on-screen keyboard for any other computer platform available today (at any price),
> > Already included as a standard component in the GNOME desktop environment, GOK is providing users of single switch
> > and head-mouse
> > interface devices dramatically quicker performance (easily 5 times faster control of dialog boxes, web browsing, text
> > editing, and numerous other tasks).
> > 
> > Dasher is an innovative and cross platform text entry application optimized for eye-gaze and head tracker systems from the University of Cambridge. Now
> > also shipping with the GNOME 2.6 desktop (and therefore with distributions that include GNOME 2.6) tthe most recent releases of Dasher utilize AT-SPI to
> > provide control of the desktop for these users "out of the box." It is noteworthy that Dasher is a product of University research. It serves as an
> > excellent example of technology transfer made possible in great part by the use of open standards and open source technologies.
> 
> I think we should add something like this about Gnopernicus:
> 
> Gnopernicus is a screen reader/magnifier with Braille support in development 
> for users with visual impairments that is part of the GNOME 2.6 desktop. 
> Gnopernicus utilizes the AT-SPI functionality exclusively for obtaining all of 
> the information required for screen reading and magnification, and therefore 
> doesn't need to build and maintain and Off-Screen-Model or otherwise patch the 
> video drivers or operating system.
> 
> 
> In this way we note that it exists (important) and that it uses AT-SPI 
> (important), but make no comment about quality or functionality.  In fact, 
> this draft paragraph notes that this technology is in development (implying 
> that it isn't done yet).