[LAU] g t k client to control the jack audio server?

[Patrick Shirkey]

On Sat, September 1, 2012 3:31 am, S. Massy wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 31, 2012 at 09:12:12AM -0500, Chris Caudle wrote:
>> > From: "S. Massy" <lists at wolfdream.ca>
>> > Unfortunately not. This particular poster is blind and uses the Orca
>> > screen-reader to access his computer and the GUI. Orca mostly works
>> with
>> > GTK-based applications
>>
>> OK, thank you for clarifying.
>>
>> So, what is desired is not a GTK application per se, but an application
>> which works correctly with the Orca screen reader software.
> Correct. Until very recently, that did more or less restrict it to GTK,
> though I have heard of recent improvements on other fronts as you
> describe below.
>
>>
>> The Orca wiki (which has  a disclaimer of being out of date) has this to
>> say:
>> Orca works with applications and toolkits that support the assistive
>> technology service provider interface (AT-SPI)....
>> Applications and toolkits supporting the AT-SPI include the GNOME GTK+
>> toolkit, the Java platform's Swing toolkit, SWT, OpenOffice/LibreOffice,
>> Mozilla, and WebKitGtk.
>>
>> According to the AT-SPI entry in wikipedia, support for  AT-SPI is
>> included in:
>> GTK+ 2, Java/Swing, the Mozilla suite, StarOffice/OpenOffice.org and Qt
>> 4.
> That's right; thanks for taking the trouble to look into the fine details
> of the thing.
>
>>
>> So it appears that the possible solutions to the problem would be a GTK
>> application for starting and controlling jack (as originally requested),
>> a
>> Java/Swing application to do the same, or help Rui make any changed
>> needed
>> in qjackctl so that the AT-SPI support in Qt4 is utilized.
>>
>> Possibly a variation on a GTK application would be something like PyGTK
>> which uses the GTK framework but from a language tailored to fast
>> development.
> I'd say the latter would probably be the easiest and quickest solution.
>
> One problem with accessibility in GUIs under any OS will always be
> that accessibility mechanisms remain of little value if developpers do
> not make use of them and modify their design to work well with them. One
> example is the guitarix project, which uses GTK. Originally it was
> fairly accessible and became nearly completely so after I made some
> requests to the devs. Unfortunately, since they redesigned the interface
> to be entirely drag 'n drop friendly, it has become largely
> inaccessible, even though it uses GTK and ATK. That's why I mostly stick
> to CLI. :)
>
> Thanks again for taking time to understand the situation. Although I
> personally believe a textual interface will always remain the best way
> to interact with computers for visually impaired people, many are no
> longer used to such interfaces and expect a similar experience under
> Linux as what they have grown accustomed to under Windows or Mac.
>


Perhaps we can come up with an accessible interface that compliments
qjackctl?

I have some ideas on how to achieve this but I will need to do some
research first.

If you have any feedback on what is currently missing and what would make
it accessible then I am all ears :-)


--
Patrick Shirkey
Boost Hardware Ltd