Re: GNOME 3/Shell Magnifier(s)

[Robert Cole <rkcole72984 gmail com>]

Hello, Joseph and Pinheiro (my apologies if I made a spelling error).

I just tested the Zoom feature in Linux Mint 12 in a virtual machine and 
I found that it worked quite smoothly. I will probably install Mint 12 
in the near future so that I can test things without the restrictions of 
a virtual machine.

Just in case other Mint users are involved on this list, I want to make 
a few notes:

Firstly, Mint 12 has enabled a GNOME Shell extension named noa11y. While 
I am unsure as to what it does entirely, I know that it disables the 
Accessibility icon by default. to disable this extension, just press the 
Super (Windows) key and click on the Advanced Settings button (the 
fourth button down on the very left of the screen on my Linux Mint 12 
live session). In Advanced Settings, go to the Shell Extensions section 
and turn off the "noa11y extension". turning this off will cause an 
accessibility icon to appear toward the top right of top panel, to the 
left of the volume icon.

Secondly (and I am unsure is this is default in GNOME 3/Shell or if it 
is caused by something in Linux Mint), there are no keyboard shortcuts 
set by default for magnification. To set shortcuts you will have to 
click on your user icon at the top right of the top panel (I am sorry 
that I do not know the proper names for these icons) and open System 
Settings. You can also open the System Settings window from the Mint 
Menu, System Tools menu, then System Settings. When the System Settings 
menu opens, click on the Keyboard icon that appears in the Hardware 
section. Once the Keyboard window opens, click on the Shortcut tab, and 
then click on the Universal Access listing on the left-hand side of the 
window. The three settings related to the magnifier are: Toggle 
magnifier, Magnifier zoom in, and Magnifier zoom out. Once you set these 
to whatever keyboard shortcuts you desire, close the window and 
everything should be all set for use.

To the developers, I am not too experienced with coding and such, but if 
there is anything that I can do to help with testing and improvement, 
please direct me in what to do/where to go. I want to contribute in some 
way. I am grateful for all that you are doing both in the desktop and in 
terms of accessibility. Because of the work which you are doing, I am 
able to afford to use my computer system because I could not afford to 
pay nearly $700 to $800 for a screen magnifier under Windows. I wish 
that I could financially contribute to this project, as well as to 
others, but I am just enough able to support my family. If there is 
anything else that I can do, however, please let me know. I don't want 
to just be a bystander. :) Your hard work is much appreciated by myself 
as well as others.

I do ashamedly admit that I was not so open to GNOME 3/Shell when it 
first came out, but I am loving it as well as the other desktops 
available. Keep up the good work!