[orca-list] VINUX-SUPPORT: RE: Ubuntu Unity Desktop to go to Mir and QT

[Al Sten-Clanton]

It strikes me that, from the perspective you're describing, a "viable 
product" apparently does not include accessibility as a matter of 
course.  (I'm not saying that's your own view, but only that this is the 
view you describe--all too well and concisely.) Until our access needs 
are deemed equal to the access needs of those who use the standard 
monitor and other tools, the attitude in the business will be wrong.

Tell me if I'm mistaken, but I think I heard recently that Apple's 
recent foray into accessibility resulted from a law suit.  (I say 
"recent foray" because there was a period during the 1980s when it 
provided some speech output at least.) Does anybody know for sure 
whether this is right or wrong?

Al

On 07/23/2013 11:38 PM, Christopher J Chaltain wrote:
> I agree it's unfortunate that Luke is the only one working on Unity
> accessibility, but there is a big difference between Canonical and Apple
> or Google. Apple is the wealthiest company in the world. Google is also
> a large company and is also quite profitable. Apple and Google are
> already well established players in the mobile space. Neither the iPhone
> nor Android were accessible when they were first released. Canonical is
> a tiny company, less than 600 employees, and is still not profitable
> after being around for about eight years or so. It's still trying to
> break into the mobile market.
>
> I'm not defending Canonical here. I too wish that they would invest more
> in accessibility development. I'm just pointing out that circumstances
> right now between Canonical and Apple/Google are quite a bit different.
> I think Canonical focus right now is to just get a viable product out
> into the market place. I'm sure that once that happens and it becomes
> successful, they'll invest more in accessibility, just as Apple and
> Google have. In some ways, this is analogous to Microsoft and Windows
> Phone. MS's priority right now is to become relevant in the mobile
> space. Once that happens then I think accessibility will move up higher
> on their priority queue.
>
> On 07/24/2013 08:41 AM, Alex Midence wrote:
>> Hi, Luke,
>>
>> Just to be clear, I don't think and have never thought you were part
>> of the
>> problem.  What I do think is that it sucks that you are the only one
>> having
>> to do all this work.  They really should hire you some help.  There is
>> only
>> so much one person can do and a11y is a big job.  Apple has a full on
>> team
>> working on Voiceover.  Google has Dr. Raman and his assistant and
>> probably
>> others I don't know about working on Android accessibility.  If
>> canonical is
>> going to expand into all these other markets, I don't see why they can't
>> hire you a couple of assistants to help distribute the workload.
>> However,
>> those decisions are beyond our control.  Speaking for myself, I am
>> personally very appreciative of all the work you have put in.
>>
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Alex M
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Luke Yelavich [mailto:themuso at ubuntu.com]
>> Sent: Tuesday, July 23, 2013 11:05 PM
>> To: Alex Midence
>> Cc: Christopher Chaltain; vinux-support at googlegroups.com; 'Ubuntu
>> Accessibility Mailing List'; orca-list at gnome.org
>> Subject: Re: [orca-list] VINUX-SUPPORT: RE: Ubuntu Unity Desktop to go to
>> Mir and QT
>>
>> On Wed, Jul 24, 2013 at 01:33:34PM EST, Alex Midence wrote:
>>> Also, for the record, I fully recognize and appreciate all the hard
>>> work of the developers of the Ubuntu community who freely give of
>>> their time to make things accessible.  However, it was disappointing
>>> to finally have gotten a very accessible port of Unity in 12.04 only
>>> to be told that we were back to poor a11y in other versions of the
>>> distro for at the very least 2 full years.
>> For the record, I was disappointed as well. I expressed my desire for
>> Unity
>> to stick with using Qt at the time, given the accessibility advantages it
>> brought for one, and the fact that it would have made maintaining unity
>> easier as the nux GUI toolkit wouldn't also need to be maintained, and
>> Qt is
>> well established etc.
>>
>> I am the only developer working for Canonical who spends at least some of
>> the time working on accessibility issues. I say some of the time,
>> because I
>> do have other duties, in fact the primary reason why I was hired was
>> not to
>> work exclusively on accessibility, although the powers that be are ok
>> with
>> me doing so.
>>
>> Having said that, my big focus for the next 10-12 months will almost
>> exclusively be getting Qt5, Mir, and Unity as accessible an
>> environment as
>> one person can possibly manage. Qt5 helps somewhat, but the specific
>> parts
>> of Qt that are being used for the new Unity still have some rough
>> spots when
>> it comes to accessibility, and there is also the changing graphics
>> stack and
>> everythign that goes with it to deal with.
>>
>> Given these changes, and given I am the only person who is likely
>> going to
>> be working on all of this, I cannot really promise anything, given the
>> work
>> that is required, and given the time and resources, or possibly lack
>> there
>> of, available to do so. I do really appreciate that you all want
>> regularly
>> updated, accessible distro releases that have the latest accessibility
>> crack, but please keep in mind just how many of us in the wider *nix
>> accessibility community there are, and also keep in mind how many of
>> us are
>> involved with some form of active development in the area, and if you
>> want
>> to dig deeper, think about the number of us working on GUI desktop
>> accessibility of some kind.
>>
>> I try to take the approach of under promising, and at least
>> delivering, and
>> if I can over deliver, than thats great.
>>
>> In the meantime, there is the Ubuntu GNOME remix, with GNOME shell, wich
>> does work quite well these days. I'll do my best to try and fix any
>> issues
>> people may notice with that release, given the accessibility tools and
>> infrastructure are shared with GNOME and Unity.
>>
>> Thanks, and I really appreciate your understanding, and support.
>>
>> Luke
>>
>