Re: the keyboard accessibility capplet

[Bill Haneman <bill haneman sun com>]

I (Bill) said:

> > > Spinners are useful for some users and sliders for others.  This is
> > > not a 1 size fits all area.
> > 
> > 1 size works at least adequately for all. 2 sizes at once doesn't make
> > sense.
> 
> 1 size is not adequate for all.  I think you might mean "adequate for
> most".  What, should we start shipping only one font?  And maybe
> English-only, since most GNOME users can read it somewhat? :-P

OK, I said this for effect, but it sounded a little more sarcastic in
print that I'd intended :-).  I don't mean to be dismissive of Havoc's
comments.

However they have all been discussed at least once before, and the
existing dialog was what we ended up with, as Jody says.  I am just
pointing out that we are treading old ground.  That doesn't mean there's
no point in exploring alternatives, but there is probably a reason why
the obvious ones have been ruled out already.

When assessing the pros and cons of this capplet in terms of usability,
I'd suggest that rather than ask ourselves "what would it be like to use
this capplet with feature X added/missing", we ask ourselves "what would
UI would be most helpful" if we had, say, severe hand tremors or
operated the keyboard with the eraser-end of a pencil gripped or
strapped onto some part of our bodies.  The answers are not always the
same, and I would argue that in the specific case of this capplet, the
smaller user population wins since they have a more vested interest in
the outcome.

The fact also that this is about "universal access" tends to mitigate
towards including more features (to cover more user needs), as opposed
to providing a lean interface that meets a smaller set of requirements
in a more elegant way.  

- Bill