[Hudlug] message about orca

[MICHAEL WEAVER]

The following message was posted to the Orca mailing list.
I'm trying to come up with a way to meet the differing needs with as few
changes as possible. First I'll list the main user groups I think we
should have in mind:
Use case 1: Screen reader user --
This user relies on using the screen reader to use the Gnome desktop.
The most practical way to start Orca in this case is via the boot
options on the Live CD or being started automatically on startup on an
installed system. Most likely Orca should always be running, though it
may be muted. Al's suggestion of a Hot-key would also be very helpful
for this group.
Use case 2: Magnifier user --
The low vision user can also start the magnifier by default as above,
but should also be able to do so in other ways. Some users may only need
the magnifier when using certain applications, perhaps preferring larger
fonts at other times. It should therefore be easy to turn the magnifier
on and off.
Use case 3: Non-disabled user --
This user might just stumble across Orca and give it a try (because it
will be installed on all default Ubuntu desktops, which in itself is
good). We don't need to strive to provide any particular functionality
for this person but we must be careful not to get in the way. If the
program is started by someone just looking around it should still be
possible to close it easily. One thing we must certainly avoid is having
it start up by default each time with no easy way to disable it. Also,
Orca enables gnome access support by default, which is great for core
users, but may cause problems for others.
Next, looking for solutions. I was just playing with the gnome menu
editor and made an access sub-menu under preferences:
http://people.ubuntu.com/~henrik/images/access-sub-menu.png
Text version:
System -> Preferences -> Accessibility is a menu with the following items:
* Assistive Technology Preferences
* Keyboard Settings (sticky keys et al.)
* On-screen keyboard
* Orca Screen Reader and Magnifier
* Orca Setup (GUI)
This may not be the best way to do it but it serves as a good discussion
point. One option is of course to have no menu entry for Orca at all and
let it always be started from a terminal, Alt-F2 or automatically. I
think that would be unfortunate because a) it seems natural to launch
the config GUI from the menu b) Gnopernicus works this way and c) having
a menu entry raises the profile of Orca and a11y among averages users
and developers.
The first three entries are straight-forward; they open applications
that can be closed as you would expect. But the Orca entries are more
confusing, partly because Orca runs without any GUI by default and
partly because of the keep-alive daemon that re-spawns it endlessly.
In my tests I set up the two Orca entries in the following way,
respectively:
1. Launches 'orca', starting in terminal mode
2. Launches 'orca --gui-setup' in normal mode
The reasoning for menu item #1:
The terminal mode is required for sensible behaviour on the first
launch. User group 1 answers the spoken questions and the window closes
when complete. User groups 2 and 3 will see a terminal come up and get a
rough idea of what is happening even if they have no idea what a screen
reader is. Some questions are displayed and read out, if sound works.
The reasoning for menu item #2:
Clicking on the second Orca entry gives you the Orca setup GUI. Here you
can activate and deactivate the various features. This GUI is probably
the best way to configure and activate the magnifier. It's also a good
interface for group 3 to figure out what Orca is.
Issues with menu item #1:
* Starting orca the way it is currently packaged for Ubuntu does not
seem to work at all because the initial setup session does not work
properly so it seems it must be run in terminal mode.
* When running Orca in terminal mode (but launched from the menu) for
the first time it runs as it should and when you are done the terminal
closes (good), but when you run it a second time (after logging out and
back in) the terminal stays open (not good). Closing it kills Orca (and
revives?)
* When you first start Orca it sets the AT-SPI gconf key which ensures
that AT-SPI starts next time you log in and every time thereafter. This
is good if you need it but bad if you don't. The problem is that even
though the user is notified that the the framework has been switched on
there is no obvious way to switch it off (yes you can go to the g-a-p
panel, but this is not obvious to a novice user).
* A related issues is that Orca itself is not selected to start
automatically. This is actually a minus for all the user groups: people
who want to use Orca would find it simpler if it just started up next
time they logged in. For users who are just exploring it might actually
be better if both Orca and AT-SPI start at login because if there are
issues with it (or just needless resource consumption) they would go
searching for where to switch it all off, but only if it's obviously
running (and it's not hard to find if you look).
Issues with #2:
* When you start Orca in this mode and it has never been run before it
starts the first-use setup in text mode. That would normally be fine,
but when you launch it from a menu, not in terminal mode, you only hear
the voice (if sound is on) and you don't ever see the GUI.
* If you try to issue 'orca --gui-setup' while Orca is already running
you don't get the GUI, but rather some error messages about killing the
process. (I guess it dies and is brought back at this point).
A possible solution:
Ideally, we should have just one launch item for Orca that covers all
the needs above. It should be simple and intuitive for all user groups,
be simple to implement and have minimal text changes (translations have
largely been done already)
I think we can get quite far by just making some changes to the
first-time setup. It currently reads:
Welcome to Orca setup.
Select desired voice:
1. kal_diphone
2. rab_diphone
etc., ...
I suggest we add this to the beginning:
Welcome to Orca setup.
Select desired setup mode:
1. Continue text-based setup
2. Use graphical setup - includes magnifier settings
Enter choice:
If choosing #1 the setup would continue as it does now. Choosing #2 would:
* set a flag like:
orca.settings.useGuiSetup = True
* Launch the GUI interface (voiced)
* Closing the GUI window would cause the initial setup to resume,
skipping the questions but reading out the final text.
The final text should be changed to:
Setup complete.
Orca and Accessibility support in Gnome will start automatically next
time you log in. To disable this feature see the Assistive Technology
Preferences. For more information enter 'orca --help' or press
Insert+Key while Orca is running.
Press Return to continue.
In addition Orca should cope better with the 'orca' command being issued
while it is already running. This is esp. useful for someone trying to
launch setup from the Gnome menu, but is also useful for anyone trying
to run --setup, --gui-setup, or --help. If you don't know what the key
bindings are these are all reasonable things to try from a terminal. At
the moment this sends Orca into an endless loop of restarts on my
system, only stopped by 'killall orca'.
Finally, the Orca menu item needs to do the right thing each  subsequent
time it is clicked, whether Orca is already running on not. In fact the
menu item could probably just point at a simple shell scrip that checks
if Orca is indeed running and then does the appropriate thing.
Case 1: Orca is not running and the user had originally opted for
text-based operation. -- Orca starts up in the background saying just
'Welcome to Orca' and resumes normal operation.
Case 2: Orca is not running and the user had originally opted for the
graphical setup. -- Orca starts as it would with 'orca --gui-setup'.
Case 3: Orca is already running and the user had originally opted for
text-based operation. -- Either open a terminal with the text-based
setup or do nothing.
Case 4: Orca is already running and the user had originally opted for
the graphical setup. -- The graphical setup window appears.
Ideally the GUI setup window should also have a 'Quit Orca' button in
addition to a 'Close' button for use in cases 2 and 4.
Hot key start-up:
The start-up script described above would also be useful for Hot key
activation because it would always do the right ting. If Orca is running
it would do nothing or launch setup, depending on user settings.
- Henrik
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