Re: Panel Status - GNOME 2.0

[Bill Haneman <bill haneman sun com>]

Sander Vesik wrote:


> The prority of having a p[anel is far more higher than having an
> accessible panel, so all accessability work on panel should be postponed
> unril after such time as we have a working panel and people can work on
> aplets (panel is blocking work on them).

I disagree with Sander here, at least the "far more" part.  If we don't
address accessibility in the panel *now*, it won't get addressed, and
without an accessible panel then Gnome-2 accessibility is basically a
lie from the end-user perspective.  Though we can add accessibility to
most apps and non-core toolkits later, we need for that accessibility
which will be coming on line in the Gnome2 timeframe to work *with the
gnome2 platform*.

We don't want to require, say, a "panel patch" in order to use assistive
technologies with Gnome 2, and we can't afford to wait for 2.2 in order
to have at least the panel and control center accessible.  As Telsa
pointed out, expectations for accessibility in Gnome 2 are very high.

I think that it is already a problem to ship any inaccessible bits with
the so-called "core" gnome2, though we have conceded that such will be
the case.  To ship an inaccessible panel seems to me totally at odds
with the Board's assertion that accessibility is a key part of Gnome 2.

regards,

Bill