Hello all,
LCL applications can't be used by blind users. It's a bad news for blind
programmers, but specially for blind users. It's a severe restriction if
we regard it can occurs in the workplace.
Recently, I heard about a blind girls who couldn't access a desktop
application. The developer makes an application wich returns a database
query in a picture not readable for screen readers. The company doesn't
have patience to search for another occupation for her. The consequence
is that she will probably laid off.
I don't know if the application was writen in Lazarus. It's an example
on what can happen when applications were designed without
accessibilities concerns. It seems to be a little bit dramatical, but
being blind, I can make sure the consequences are usually so unsuitable.
And why is not LCL accessible? As I couldn't use it because the lack of
accessibility, I don't know if this is the single problem. But as far as
I could realize, the problem are the labels. If I have a label "name"
and an editbox to fill up this information, label is not read. The
labels of buttons and those used in dialog messages are not read as well.
I tried to understand why the screen readers don't read it. The answer,
for Windows system, was:
Two conditions need to be respected in order to provide information for
screen readers. When using labels and editboxes in combination, it's
necessary to set the mnemonic of label to point to the editbox. If I am
right, it was done to set the property "control" of labels.
Yes, it's important, but it's not sufficient. Screen readers query
information by means of the windows event called wn_gettext. If LCL does
not handle this event, it's not possible to provide information for
screen readers.
So my ask is: does LCL handle this event?
I will do some tests in Linux to give you some feed back about
accessibility.
Regards,
Luciano
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