Re: GDM accessibility sans AT-SPI

[Bill Haneman <Bill Haneman Sun COM>]

David Bolter wrote:
> Hi Henrik,
>
> Henrik Nilsen Omma wrote:
>   
> > Brian Cameron wrote:
> >   
> >     
> > > I suppose it might be possible to code an on-screen keyboard directly
> > > into GDM, but this might be more work than you think.  Note GOK supports
> > > "dwell" mode so that it works for users who can only manipulate a single
> > > button.  Making an on-screen keyboard that supports the same sorts of
> > > disabilities that GOK supports might be tricky.
> > >     
> > >       
> > I'm not sure what you mean by "dwell" mode here. In AT terminology that 
> > usually means making mouse clicks by hovering over an area. As far as I 
> > know GOK does not have this feature built i, but you can use KmouseTool. 
> > We should really get this built into X IMO. You may be thinking of 
> > switch operation, of which GOK has a much more advanced implementation 
> > than onBoard.
> >
> >
> >   
> >     
> GOK has a dwell access method, where "access method" is an expression 
> for a "way of navigating and activating keys on the on-screen 
> keyboard".  
Yes; dwell method's target users can point but cannot readily click.  
For instance, some head tracker and eye-gaze users fall into this 
category.  It can also be useful for certain other mobility problems in 
which click, while possible, is inadvisable (this last category of users 
is similar to the primary target use of KMousetool).

As David infers, GOK does have pointer control which can be used in 
dwell mode, allowing a "pointer only" user to move and click the core 
mouse pointer (and do drag-and-drop operations as well, albeit slowly).
> Since the assumption is that GOK users are using a non-core 
> pointing device, off-keyboard mouse clicks are current done by driving 
> the core mouse pointer around the desktop via specialized gok keyboard 
> keys.  I think it would be a valuable addition to add a good Dwell 
> core-pointer user mode to GOK sometime in the future.  

This is possible via XEvie, whereas in the past it was not technically 
possible.

Bill