> The building blocks of all our code as simple as possible to use and add > accessibility so it isn't a chore for developers. Let's face it the > majority of designers don't even consider accessibility even when they > have people who need it on the team.
A very cool thing about GNOME is that people do have open minds and are willing to listen. So, I'm now in London at the GNOME Usability hackfest and spoke with designers about accessibility design considerations this week so we can fix problems at the source before the problems even make it out the door. Based upon this blog entry, I believe a very positive connection was made: http://mairin.wordpress.com/2010/02/23/painless-accessibility-tips-for-gnome-designers-and-developers/ I also sat with Matthew Paul Thomas from Ubuntu -- he's now using Orca and accerciser to examine the user interfaces he is working on. How cool is that? > Ideally we should work on making accessibility a part of the college and > other training curiculums so that at least new folks come in to the > software world already indoctrinated with the need for making things > accessible. Agreed. My goal for the past year or so has been to shy away from preaching to the choir and moving towards integrating tighter with the mainstream. If we can accomplish this, we will be able to deliver solutions that work in a way that is efficient, effective and sustainable. We have shifted the GNOME Boston hackfests from one where "those accessibility guys hide in a room for their own planning" to one where we integrate with everyone else at GNOME Boston, with direct conversations on raising awareness for a11y and how they can test for a11y. It took some people (both those in a11y and those in the mainstream) out of their comfort zone for a bit, but I believe it is pushing us closer to the tipping point where mainstream developers are taking ownership of the problem space. I recently gave a 2 hour talk on GNOME and GNOME accessibility to the computer science department at RPI. We also worked with the HFOSS folks at Trinity College in Connecticut to bring GNOME and GNOME accessibility into their open source program. The Project:Possibility work is organizing students for a couple code sprints on GNOME accessibility. It's all good stuff, and the focus is on getting mainstream folks aware of accessible design with a goal of spreading the wealth of knowledge and growing our virtual community. The more we can do this, the better. Will _______________________________________________ gnome-accessibility-list mailing list gnome-accessibility-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-accessibility-list
