[orca-list] Roadmap for Lang Switching , KBD Layouts and KDe?

[Veli-Pekka Tätilä <vtatila mail student oulu fi>]

Hi,
I'm new on this list, though have been lurking for a while. I'd like to know 
in broad terms the current situation and roadmap regarding multi-language 
support, laptop layouts and KDE.

That is there are three screen reader features I'd like to have pretty much 
covered before considering seriously switching to Linux as a desktop power 
user and musician. I'm not sure about the distro but Ubuntu seem to take 
their accessibility seriously and stay on the leading or sometimes bleeding 
edge.

So for these three points, What's the current situation and when might I 
expect a release which has the support? I'm quite willing to wait even a 
year or two, this is just a quick ping:

1. Multi-language support. I read FInnish e-mail and Web-sites on a daily 
basis so I would like a hotkey for switching the screen text between FInnish 
and US English using the speech synth eSpeak or a combo of eSpeak and 
Festival. I don't mind the language switching to be manual as long as it can 
be performed quickly. Also I use all computer software in English anyway, so 
I wouldn't mind the prompts like check box or selected to be in English no 
matter what the languagee for the screen text happens to be. The ability to 
select a set of favorite languages would implement this feature nicely. My 
current reader has no such concept and where US English and FInnish used to 
be neighbors, now there are Chinese, Welsh and Lithuanian between the two, 
<grinn>.

2. Support for alternative hotkey layouts such as the laptop layout using 
the FInnish keybord would be almost a must. Ideally when I press a key such 
as ö, which is the key next to l, it should show up as ö in the UI not as 
the character it happens to be in the English keyboard layout. I don't know 
about Orca, but this used to be a long-standing issue in my Windows screen 
reader Supernova. The other point is that I would really need the ability to 
use function keys or something that requires neither the numpad nor the 
insert key on a laptop keybord. While it is true the numpad can be emulated, 
that's far from ideal on most laptops. KEy layouts that are customizable and 
switchible via the GUI would rock.

3. I'd very much like to use KDE in stead of Gnome. Partly because I very 
much prefer KDe's extensive GUI-based customizability and partly because 
most of my sighted Linux friends use KDE and the apps for it exclusively. 
ANother reason is that I find even Gnome to be annoyingly semi Windows like, 
though a bit smarter, in far too many places, and was kind of hoping KDE 
would be more independent and start usability from the ground up.

One great benefit in KDE is that I can easily, graphically customize all the 
colors to suit my sight, as I use a bit of magnification, too. NOne of the 
high contrast schemes in desktop environments like Windows, KDE, Gnome and 
OS X are good enough for me, out of the box. The other is that there seem to 
be all kindse of cool plugs for the KDe file manager, woops err, Konqueror-.

I do know KDE support will have to wait for the QT4 library to become 
mainstream in KDE4, and even after that it will probably take time before 
Orca is ported to run in QT4 and will support KDE as well as it does Gnome 
now. NOt to mention all the legacy apps. So I guess we might be talking 
years as far as this last requirement goes. Still I'm certain I'm not the 
only sight-impaired person who'd like to use KDE rather than Gnome, given a 
choice that is not bound by accessibility constraints.

My main reason for having stayed with WIndows so long is accessibility and 
investments to certain commercial music software. but I saw Orca in the Edgy 
live CD and was pretty impressed. This is the first time Linux accessibility 
is gradually getting to a point that I can seriously consider Linux as an 
option as a legally blind GUI fan.  the same about OS x, really.

Any help appreciated and sorry for such a redundant post. I'm sure these are 
questions asked often so if some of this is coverd in a FAQ, feel free to 
point me to that in stead.

--
With kind regards Veli-Pekka Tätilä (vtatila mail student oulu fi)
Accessibility, game music, synthesizers and programming:
http://www.student.oulu.fi/