Re: [g-a-devel] Extensible states (or properties)

[Peter Korn <Peter Korn Sun COM>]

Hi Aaron,

Aaron Leventhal wrote:
> For the email example, flagged is indicated with a color.
> For the IM example, away is indicated with a color. The status string is 
> not rendered unless you hover over the buddy name.
>
> How would you recommend exposing these today?

The color is an attribute of the text, so text attributes make sense certainly 
for the color itself.  The color is an indication of meaning.  As Bill 
suggests, you could add another text attribute with the string meaning for the 
colored range of text (in this case all of the text).  But I don't think that 
is very discoverable.  I think that as this is really an attribute of the 
object that the text is representing, AccessibleDescription is a fine choice 
for conveying this info.


Peter Korn
Accessibility Architect,
Sun Microsystems, Inc.

> - Aaron
>
> Peter Korn wrote:
>
> > Hi Aaron,
> >
> > I don't understand why these need to be ATK states.  In the e-mail 
> > case you cite, "Junk" and "Flagged for follow up", etc. are either 
> > written as text on the screen, or there is an icon that can have an 
> > AccessibleName.  This is, after all, how the sighted user gets the 
> > information.
> >
> > In the IM client, your status string example speaks for itself - it is 
> > a string.  It should implement Atk_Text of course.
> >
> > In the calendar, how is this information indicated to the user?  Via 
> > icons or text, right?  Again, we have standard ways to convey icon 
> > information, and of course text.
> >
> > While these things are, semantically, "state" things, they are about 
> > the state of the application (IM), or of a record in the application 
> > (e-mail, calendar), and are already otherwise conveyed using user 
> > interface elements that we otherwise would be making accessible.
> >
> >
> > These don't seem like reasons to add new states to me, let alone 
> > something that needs to completely change the state mechanism (to 
> > allow for arbitrary strings).
> >
> >
> > Peter Korn
> > Accessibility Architect,
> > Sun Microsystems, Inc.
> >
> >
> > Aaron Leventhal wrote:
> >
> > > One thing that has come out in the working group for DHTML 
> > > accessibility is the need for extensible states.
> > >
> > > Some sample use cases:
> > >
> > > _Email:
> > > _An email message may be marked with states such as "Junk", "Flagged 
> > > for follow up", "Unread"
> > >
> > > _IM client:_
> > > A buddy in a buddy list can have one of the states: idle, away, do 
> > > not disturb, etc. These may not be boolean as there may be a status 
> > > string such as "Idle for 33 minutes" or "Away: at lunch"
> > >
> > > _Calendar:
> > > _A schedule item make have a state: conflicting, repeating, 
> > > tentative, etc.
> > >
> > > We can try to expand the states table to contain all of these use 
> > > cases, but I don't think we can ever name all of the useful potential 
> > > states or properties. At the moment people stuff this information 
> > > into a tooltip or accessible name, which isn't a good long term 
> > > solution. UI Automation will provide a localized statusString which 
> > > will provide this info, but that is not semantic -- it would not 
> > > allow the toggling of these states via on onscreen keyboard. On the 
> > > other hand, it is a practical, simple solution which gets most of 
> > > what's needed.
> > >
> > > What will ATK provide?
> > >
> > > - Aaron
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Gnome-accessibility-devel mailing list
> > > Gnome-accessibility-devel gnome org
> > > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-accessibility-devel
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