From: "Jan Dubois" <j...@activestate.com>
On Fri, Oct 18, 2013 at 12:25 PM, Johan Vromans <jvrom...@squirrel.nl>
wrote:
IIRC, Octavian is blind and uses screen reading tools that require a
command line interface. He cannot use CP because it only has a GUI to
set up the project.
I'm sure Octavian will correct me if I misrepresent it, but I think
you have it exactly backwards: GUIs are a lot easier to use for vision
impaired people than commandlines, as long as the GUI has proper
accessibility support.
Yes, GUIs are easier to use than command line, but the GUIs might have
accessibility problems that might make the application absolutely
inaccessible, while the CLI programs are always accessible if all their
functions can be specified by parameters.
If the CLI programs also offer a kind of graphical representation they might
have the same accessibility problems.
So from the accessibility point of view, a program like ActiveState PDK is
much better accessible, because perlapp and other programs in it can be
accessed using parameters.
PAR also offers a better accessibility, but I tried it and gave some errors
I couldn't solve, and after I asked here on the list I was told that Cava
Packager is a better solution.
It would be nice if the functions which are provided by GUI could be also
done by using parameters...
It is too bad, because there is no other better and accessible portable
solution than WxPerl, so the only alternative would be another language than
Perl.
That means the GUI needs to be navigable using TABs, and all controls
need to have proper captions that announce wherever you are inside a
dialog. That way you can quickly navigate to whatever field you need
without having to "read" all of the screen contents.
The commandline however lacks this kind of structures, so you
basically have to listen to the screen reader to read out
*everything*, or you abort and are back at the prompt...
I think much of the accessibility control is provided by the Windows
GUI libs, so the support comes there "for free". That is, I think
wxPerl has proper accessibility support on Windows, but not on Linux,
so Cava Packager would probably fine for Octavian on Windows.
Yes, that's true.
Under Linux Orca screen reader is able to access the menus in Cava and a few
other standard dialogs like those for opening/saving files, but some of the
other widgets are not accessible. And I don't know why. Even they are custom
widgets and not standard widgets, or they are not placed on a panel but
directly on the window (and I found that makes them less accessible under
Windows also).
I created a free app with WxPerl and it uses an edit combo, a combo box, a
check box, a button, a richtext multiline edit field, a toolbar, menus, and
I ran it under Linux, but it is entirely accessible with Orca screen reader.
Even the toolbar is accessible.
So I think the native GUI lib used by WxPerl under Linux is accessible, so
Cava Packager should be accessible also.
Octavian
