Re: gnome and slackware 9.1

[Peter Korn <Peter Korn Sun COM>]

Hi Alex,

> Is the gnome that comes with slackware 9.1 accessible as is or will I
> need to build anything from source?

It depends upon which version of GNOME is in slackware 9.1, what your
disability is, what applications you want to use, and whether you consider
a version of an accessibility tool that isn't yet of product quality
sufficient to pass your definition of "accessible".

GNOME 2.x < version 2.4 contain pretty good keyboard accessibility to the
desktop, window manager, and core applications.  It also contains fairly
good theming support of those things (with notable bugs) for
high-contrast, low-contrast, and large print themes.  It also contains the
"AccessX" functionality, a suite of options for people with a range of
significant but not very severe physical disabilities.

GNOME 2.4 adds to that two assistive technologies which cover a broad
range of visual disabilities (no vision with speech, no vision with
Braille, and low vision with magnification) and a number of severe
physical disabilities.  Neither of these tools is a "product quality" yet
- one is version 0.7 and the other 0.8.  Interoperability with these apps
is coming along, but still significant parts of the GNOME desktop, and
things that are extra to that desktop but nontheless commonly bundled with
it (e.g. Mozilla and Evolution) do not work well with these apps yet.


I hope this brief exposition helps you get closer to answer at least.


Regards,

Peter Korn
Sun Accessibility team