2010.2 Release Schedule

jteh — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:44:12 -0500

We're finally drawing very near to the end of the NVDA 2010.2 release cycle. It's been a bit longer than I hoped, but I think the wait was justified and worthwhile.

We will release according to the guidelines documented in ReleaseProcess. All developers and translators should familiarise themselves with this document, which I updated earlier today.

Following is the tentative release schedule for 2010.2:

beta1: 13 September
rc1: 13 October
final: 20 October

Of course, this will be altered if any major problems are encountered.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this release!

Why Can't Microsoft Build a Screen Reader into Windows?

Jamie Teh — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:02:00 -0500

As Windows screen reader users will know, there is no screen reader included in Windows. Instead, users requiring a screen reader must obtain and install a third party product. Yes, there is Microsoft Narrator, but even Microsoft know that this is hardly worthy of the name "screen reader". :)

A few years ago, Apple revolutionised the accessibility industry by building a fully fledged screen reader, VoiceOver, right into Mac OS X. Ever since, many have asked why Microsoft can't do the same for Windows. Many are angry with Microsoft for this continued lack of built-in accessibility, some using it as support for the "why Apple is better than Microsoft" argument.

Here's some food for thought. I'm not sure Microsoft could do this even if they wanted to; their hands are probably tied in a legal sense. If they did, they could very likely be sued by assistive technology vendors for anti-competitive conduct, just as they have been sued several times concerning their bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows. Once again, Apple don't have to be concerned with this because there wasn't an existing screen reader on Mac OS X and they don't have the dominant position in the market.

I have no evidence for this argument. Perhaps I'm wrong, but history suggests that it is highly likely that I'm not.

Even as one of the lead developers of NVDA, I'm first and foremost a blind user who wants the best possible access, both for myself and other blind users. As such, I would very much welcome a screen reader built into Windows. Competition is good. A built-in screen reader doesn't mean that other screen readers can't exist. If the built-in solution were good enough, then there would be no need for NVDA to exist. If it weren't, NVDA would drive accessibility to improve through innovation and competition.

JAWS, IE/Firefox and TITLE Attributes

m.adams — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:39:47 -0500

I’ve run across a few issues and concerns lately that talk about JAWS reading the attributes in IE but not in Firefox. I had to spend a little time researching this one but here is the gist of it…</p> <p>The fact that IE works is actually an old IE bug and some dumb luck. You’ll notice in IE that if there is only a title attribute it will be read by JAWS, if there is a title attribute and alt-text the alt-text is read by JAWS.</p> <p>2. JAWS defaults to read alt and not Title attributes however this can be modified through the configuration manager…Set Options–>HTML Options–>Links–>Use Title; this will change your settings until you change them back which I don’t recommend but it is a good way to show that your code is working in this manner.</p> <p>The real fix here would be to add alt-text which should be picked up by default with JAWS 10 in Firefox.</p> <p>Just as another possibility you can do an about:config in Firefox and make sure browser.chrome.toolbar_tips is set to true or you won’t see the tool tips at all.</p> <p>Long story short here is that we’ve all gotten so used to something not working right that we came to think of the behaviour as being correct. Bad on us.</p> </article> <article> <h1>Apple announcements For September 1, 2010</h1> <p>Ricky Buchanan — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:10:42 -0500</p> <p>There was an Apple event today which unveiled some exciting updated products. Unfortunately my own Mac has a broken video card and is at the local Apple shop for urgent repairs, but rather than delay telling you I am going to post this abbreviated account from my iPad (which has been invaluable while my computer has been away!).</p> <p>Announcements included:</p> <dl> <dt><a href="http://apple.com/ipodtouch">Upgraded iPod Touch</a></dt> <dd>This iPod Touch has all the cool stuff recently added to the iPhone, including FaceTime video calling, the high definition Retina Display, and it’s own forward and rear facing cameras.</dd> <dt><a href="http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/">Upgraded iPod Nano With Touch-screen</a></dt> <dd>The iPod Nano now sports the same type of touchscreen that the other iDevices have, including VoiceOver and most of the same other <a href="http://www.apple.com/accessibility/itunes/vision.html">accessibility features</a> found on the iPhone and iPads.</dd> <dt><a href="http://apple.com/ipodshuffle">Upgraded iPod Shuffle</a></dt> <dd>This new iPod Shuffle sports physical buttons again, as well as VoiceOver, and support for playlists.</dd> <dt><a href="http://apple.com/appletv">Upgraded Apple TV</a></dt> <dd>it’s smaller, sleeker, and black! Seriously, though, if you are an ardent Mac/Apple user this looks like a great way to integrate your setup with your existing TV/stereo system.</dd> <dt><a href="http://apple.com/itunes">iTunes 10</a></dt> <dd>iTunes 10 has a social network feature and TV shows can now be rented. And, of course, it works with the newly upgraded devices.</dd> </dl> <p>That’s all from me until my Mac is back in service, which should be early next week. What do you think about the accessibility implications of these announcements?</p> <p>- Ricky Buchanan</p> <p><h3>Share this</h3> <p>Do you know somebody else who would find this interesting or useful? Please forward it to them.</p> <p>Did somebody forward this post to you? Visit <a href="http://atmac.org">ATMac</a> and subscribe to receive the posts for free!</p> <p>This article was originally published at "<a href="http://atmac.org/apple-announcements-for-september-1-2010">Apple announcements For September 1, 2010</a>" and is copyright (C) Ricky Buchanan 2010. Please do not republish without permission.</p></p> <p>Related posts:</p><ul><li><a href="http://atmac.org/accessible-itunes-accessible-ipod-apples-september-special-event" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link: Accessible iTunes, Accessible iPod - Apple’s September Special Event">Accessible iTunes, Accessible iPod - Apple’s September Special Event</a></li><li><a href="http://atmac.org/wwdc-10-accessibility-discussion" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link: WWDC ‘10 Announcements: Accessibility Implications">WWDC ‘10 Announcements: Accessibility Implications</a></li><li><a href="http://atmac.org/talking-ipod-shuffle" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link: Talking iPod Shuffle">Talking iPod Shuffle</a></li></ul><div> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/atmac?a=EA-UqmnsEQ4:uMsdLK8dYkI:D7DqB2pKExk"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/atmac?a=EA-UqmnsEQ4:uMsdLK8dYkI:F7zBnMyn0Lo"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/atmac?a=EA-UqmnsEQ4:uMsdLK8dYkI:gIN9vFwOqvQ"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/atmac?a=EA-UqmnsEQ4:uMsdLK8dYkI:qj6IDK7rITs"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/atmac?a=EA-UqmnsEQ4:uMsdLK8dYkI:yIl2AUoC8zA"></img></a> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Another release of odt2braille - Braille from Oracle Open Office & OpenOffice.org</h1> <p>korn — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:59:17 -0500</p> <p> Hot on the heels of the <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/korn/entry/openoffice_now_prints_to_braille">first release of odt2braille</a> comes the new release: <a href="http://odt2braille.sourceforge.net/news.html">version 0.0.2 of odt2braille</a>. This new release includes <a href="http://odt2braille.sourceforge.net/downloads.html#0.0.2">many features and enhancements</a>, as well as new and updated braille translation tables in several languages (Catalan, Danish grade 2, Portuguese grade 2, and Spanish). This release also includes an updated <a href="http://odt2braille.sourceforge.net/support.html">user manual</a> and a <a href="http://odt2braille.sourceforge.net/support.html#screencasts">6 part video tutorial</a> on how to use it. <p> When combined with either <a href="http://www.oracle.com/us/products/applications/open-office/index.html">Oracle Open Office</a> or <a href="http://www.openoffice.org/">OpenOffice.org</a>, odt2braille provides a powerful Braille embossing solution - even thought it is only at version 0.0.2... Great stuff! </article> <article> <h1>Firefox 4 beta - AT Vendor Alert</h1> <p>David Bolter — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 10:43:00 -0500</p> Hello friendly accessibility technology vendors and developers.<br /><br />As of the Firefox 4 beta 5, the child windows associated with browser tabs have been removed thereby breaking the expectations of most windows screen readers. Regretfully, the timing of this change and the substantial impact it has on AT caught the Mozilla accessibility team by surprise. Unfortunately this change is a critical step in our browser's technical roadmap. The good news is that this issue was quickly discovered during our a recent beta cycle and now we can work together on a fix!<br /><br />Let's fix this the right way. We probably shouldn't have AT relying on window classes to indicate where browser tabs are, however convenient it might have been years ago. I think, depending on how this per browser tab separation has been used in your code, we can provide an even better solution perhaps even allowing some hack removal on your side. We've very recently been in contact with most of the main AT vendors, and some have what sounds like a fix already in hand. We want to make sure we protect all our users from potential bustage, so we want to hear from all accessibility technology developers that use Windows accessibility API and have been relying on per browser tab window classes.<br /><br />Something to look for... anywhere you have code checking for a specific window class "MozillaContentWindowClass" your code will almost certainly now be broken for FF4 beta5+. Note this class used to correspond to the HWND of the child content window that received focus whenever the top level window gained focus. To see how things look now I recommend Microsoft's <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms727247.aspx">UISpy tool</a>. Be sure to run this against the most recent FF 4 beta or nightly.<br /><br />We have time but must move swiftly. Please contact us directly or on our <a href="https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-accessibility">accessibility community mailing list</a>.<br /><br />Thanks for reading.<div></div> </article> <article> <h1>ATMac Is Now An iTunes Affiliate</h1> <p>Ricky Buchanan — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 21:41:18 -0500</p> <p>Greetings Dear Readers,</p> <p>The good news is that we have been accepted into the iTunes affiliate program! This means that whenever you use a link on ATMac to buy an app from the iTunes <a href="http://atmac.org/goto/appstore">App Store</a>- like <a href="http://atmac.org/goto/proloquo2go">Proloquo2Go</a> - a small percent of the price will be paid to ATMac and hence to me. The price for you as a user is the same, and it means that I can get some money to help ATMac grow by doing things like paying other writers, and paying myself for some of the time ATMac takes to run.</p> <p>ATMac is already an affiliate for <a href="http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-3505317-10497177" target="_blank" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview("/goal/affiliate/macspeechdictate");">MacSpeech Dictate</a> and <a href="http://atmac.org/goto/amazon">Amazon.com</a>, and the income from those things helps me a lot.</p> <p>Because I want you to know that opinions here are not influenced by any income opportunities - at least as far as human psychology permits - at the end of any post with affiliate links you will see this disclaimer:</p> <p><em>Some of the links in this article are affiliate links. This means that if you purchase the products that I've linked to I'll get a commission - a small percentage of the sale price. It won't cost you anything and it will help to support me and ATMac.</em></p> <p>Or one with very similar wording but telling you exactly which product links are the affiliate ones. You may already have noticed these around on posts about MacSpeech Dictate, for example. </p> <p>I will never lie to you about my opinion of a product and I will never take money to change what I write (for example, I have in the past been offered several thousand dollars to put hidden advertisements here, disguised as my own opinion - I declined). I don’t want any of you to ever doubt the integrity of what’s written here - the fact that ATMac is trusted is very important to me.</p> <p>If you have any questions about this, please leave me a comment or <a href="http://atmac.org/contact">contact me</a> privately.</p> <p>- Ricky Buchanan</p> <p><em>Some of the links in this article are affiliate links. This means that if you purchase the products that I've linked to I'll get a commission - a small percentage of the sale price. It won't cost you anything and it will help to support me and ATMac.</em></p> <p><h3>Share this</h3> <p>Do you know somebody else who would find this interesting or useful? Please forward it to them.</p> <p>Did somebody forward this post to you? Visit <a href="http://atmac.org">ATMac</a> and subscribe to receive the posts for free!</p> <p>This article was originally published at "<a href="http://atmac.org/atmac-now-itunes-affiliate">ATMac Is Now An iTunes Affiliate</a>" and is copyright (C) Ricky Buchanan 2010. Please do not republish without permission.</p></p> <p>Related posts:</p><ul><li><a href="http://atmac.org/new-look-new-pages" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link: New look, New pages">New look, New pages</a></li><li><a href="http://atmac.org/five-things-you-dont-know-about-me-and-atmac" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link: Five Things You Don’t Know About Me And ATMac">Five Things You Don’t Know About Me And ATMac</a></li><li><a href="http://atmac.org/weekend-roundup-connect-with-atmac" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link: Weekend Round-Up: Connect With ATMac">Weekend Round-Up: Connect With ATMac</a></li></ul><div> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/atmac?a=x3p0pRLkN2g:jIgrEcb5Ex0:D7DqB2pKExk"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/atmac?a=x3p0pRLkN2g:jIgrEcb5Ex0:F7zBnMyn0Lo"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/atmac?a=x3p0pRLkN2g:jIgrEcb5Ex0:gIN9vFwOqvQ"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/atmac?a=x3p0pRLkN2g:jIgrEcb5Ex0:qj6IDK7rITs"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/atmac?a=x3p0pRLkN2g:jIgrEcb5Ex0:yIl2AUoC8zA"></img></a> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Mono Accessibility 2.1</h1> <p>Mario Carrion — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 09:09:37 -0500</p> <div> <a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.carrion.mx%2F2010%2F08%2F26%2Fmono-accessibility-2-1%2F"><br /> <br /> </a> </div> <p> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mariocarrion/4886351160/" title="Candles by Mario Carrion, on Flickr"></a> </p> <p> Last <a href="http://mono-project.com/Accessibility:_Release_Notes_2.1">Tuesday</a>, we presented <a href="http://mono-project.com/Accessibility">Mono Accessibility</a> 2.1. We worked really hard on this release. Our main goals were, among other things, to improve our <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms753107.aspx">UI Automation</a> Client API implementation, polish the interaction with at-spi2, better Moonlight accessibility and to handle custom and client-side providers. The great work made by all the contributors was the reason this release accomplished those goals. </p> <h3>What happened since last time?</h3> <p> Explaining this release is kind of hard if you are not involved in Mono Accessibility, and even more difficult if you’re not involved in Accessibility at all. However, if you’re familiar with Mono and .NET you are, also, aware of the possibility of developing .NET-based applications that run on both platforms with minor* changes or no changes at all. But, before the implementation of Mono Accessibility, there was something missing: all those applications were not accessible. </p> <p> This meant two things. First Atk-based Assistive Technologies (ATs) were not able to access Windows Forms nor Silverlight applications. Second .NET-based ATs using UI Automation were not able to run on Mono. Making them useless for people requiring Accessibility to interact with software running Mono on Linux**. </p> <p> After the implementation of Mono Accessibility, we have: </p> <ul> <li>UI Automation API Framework</li> <li>Bridge between UI Automation and ATK</li> </ul> <p> This way ATs using either Accessibility Technology, Atk or UI Automation, will be able to interact with Gtk+, Windows Forms and Silverlight applications, with no changes at all. </p> <h3>This is what happened</h3> <p> In the following video: (if you are using a RSS reader click <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwMXYXGincE">this link</a>) <a href="http://live.gnome.org/Gcalctool">gcalctool</a> is launched and an application, using UI Automation Client API, interacts with it, clicking buttons “2″, “+”, “3″ and “=”. </p> </p> <p> Then <a href="http://github.com/mattguo/UIAExplorer">UIA Explorer</a>, a .NET- based application using UI Automation Client API, also interacts with gcalctool, if you pay attention you will notice that UIA Explorer also lists all other Gtk+ based applications, such as Nautilus and the GNOME Panel. </p> <p> Finally Mozilla Firefox is executed (both Novell Moonlight with Accessibility Support and Novell Moonlight Accessibility Extensions plugins were installed prior running it) and an Atk-based Accessility Debugger, <a href="http://live.gnome.org/Accerciser">Accerciser</a>, is launched to interact with the Moonlight application. </p> <p> </p> <p>The source code used to test GCalctool is the following:</p> <pre>// gmcs -pkg:mono-uia gcalc.cs && mono gcalc.exe using System; using System.Linq; using System.Windows.Automation; namespace Mono.A11y.Examples { public class GCalc { public static void Main (string []args) { AndCondition cond = new AndCondition (new PropertyCondition (AutomationElementIdentifiers.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.Window), new PropertyCondition (AutomationElementIdentifiers.NameProperty, "Calculator")); var gcalc = AutomationElement.RootElement.FindFirst (TreeScope.Children, cond); cond = new AndCondition (new PropertyCondition (AutomationElementIdentifiers.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.Button), new PropertyCondition (AutomationElementIdentifiers.NameProperty, "Add")); var addButton = gcalc.FindFirst (TreeScope.Descendants, cond); cond = new AndCondition (new PropertyCondition (AutomationElementIdentifiers.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.Button), new PropertyCondition (AutomationElementIdentifiers.NameProperty, "Numeric 2")); var Button2 = gcalc.FindFirst (TreeScope.Descendants, cond); cond = new AndCondition (new PropertyCondition (AutomationElementIdentifiers.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.Button), new PropertyCondition (AutomationElementIdentifiers.NameProperty, "Numeric 3")); var Button3 = gcalc.FindFirst (TreeScope.Descendants, cond); cond = new AndCondition (new PropertyCondition (AutomationElementIdentifiers.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.Button), new PropertyCondition (AutomationElementIdentifiers.NameProperty, "Calculate result")); var calcButton = gcalc.FindFirst (TreeScope.Descendants, cond); cond = new AndCondition (new PropertyCondition (AutomationElementIdentifiers.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.Button), new PropertyCondition (AutomationElementIdentifiers.NameProperty, "Calculate result")); var resultText = gcalc.FindFirst (TreeScope.Descendants, cond); // Clicking buttons InvokePattern addInvoke = (InvokePattern) addButton.GetCurrentPattern (InvokePattern.Pattern); InvokePattern Invoke2 = (InvokePattern) Button2.GetCurrentPattern (InvokePattern.Pattern); InvokePattern Invoke3 = (InvokePattern) Button3.GetCurrentPattern (InvokePattern.Pattern); InvokePattern calcInvoke = (InvokePattern) calcButton.GetCurrentPattern (InvokePattern.Pattern); System.Console.WriteLine ("Pressing "2""); System.Threading.Thread.Sleep (500); Invoke2.Invoke (); System.Console.WriteLine ("Pressing "+""); System.Threading.Thread.Sleep (500); addInvoke.Invoke (); System.Console.WriteLine ("Pressing "3""); System.Threading.Thread.Sleep (500); Invoke3.Invoke (); System.Console.WriteLine ("Pressing "=""); System.Threading.Thread.Sleep (500); calcInvoke.Invoke (); } } }</pre> <h3>Where do I get it?</h3> <p> If you installed <a href="http://blog.carrion.mx/2010/03/03/accessibility-in-moonlight/">Mono Accessibility 2.0</a> an option to upgrade should be available now, if not Mono Accessibility is available for a variety of Linux distributions, including:</p> <ul> <li>openSUSE 11.2 <a href="http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Mono:/UIA/openSUSE_11.2/mono-uia.ymp">1-Click Install</a></li> <li>Ubuntu Karmic Koala <a href="https://edge.launchpad.net/~mono-a11y/+archive/releases">Package Archive on Launchpad</a></li> <li>Fedora 12 <a href="http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Mono:/UIA/Fedora_12/ Repository">openSUSE Build Service<a /></a></li> </ul> <p>Moonlight applications require the following extra steps:</p> <ul> <li>Install the updated <em>xulrunner</em> package from the above repositories. <em>(Required until patch on <a href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=480317">bug #480317</a>) gets approved.</em></li> <li>Install Novell Moonlight with Accessibility Support for <a href="http://www.mono-a11y.org/archive/moonlight-plugins/2.3.99.0accessibility/novell-moonlight-2.3.99.0accessibility-i586.xpi">32 bit</a> or <a href="http://www.mono-a11y.org/archive/moonlight-plugins/2.3.99.0accessibility/novell-moonlight-2.3.99.0accessibility-x86_64.xpi"> 64 bit</a>.</li> <li>Install <a href="http://www.mono-a11y.org/archive/moonlight-a11y-plugins/2.1/novell-moonlight-a11y-2.1-noarch.xpi">Novell Moonlight Accessibility Extensions</a></li> </ul> <p>Have fun and if you find any bug with this release, please <a href="https://bugzilla.novell.com/enter_bug.cgi?product=UI%20Automation file bugs">file it</a>. If you want to contribute or need specific assistance, please join our <a href="http://forge.novell.com/mailman/listinfo/mono-a11y">mailing list</a>, or drop in <a href="irc://irc.gimp.org/mono-a11y">#mono-a11y</a> on irc.gimp.org.</p> <p> * <em>Of course this depends on what APIs you are using. If you want to know how compatible is your application try <a href="http://www.mono-project.com/MoMA">MoMA</a>.</em><br /> ** <em>Notice however, even though Mono is muti platform and UI Automation is included in both Mono and Silverlight, in order to allow other ATs running on other platforms, different than Linux, you will require to implement an specific bridge to talk to you OS Accessibility Layer.</em></p> </article> <article> <h1>Mono Accessibility 2.1 Released</h1> <p>sshaw — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 11:32:39 -0500</p> <p>We just released our first 2.x series update this week. This release brings a 127 bug fixes.</p> <p>Over the last several months a fair amount of attention has been paid to improving at-spi2 as well. For those that don’t know what at-spi2 is its the next generation of <a title="ATSPI" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assistive_Technology_Service_Provider_Interface" target="_blank">Assistive Technology Service Provider Interface</a>. The new at-spi2 using dbus in an effort to remove corba and bonobo from the gnome stack.</p> <p>A huge benefit of this work is that kde will be able to use it without pulling in a bunch of gnome dependencies allowing for a clean desktop independent accessibility infrastructure.</p> <p>Some release details:</p> <ul> <li>Improved compatibility with AT-SPI2, including fixes and performance.</li> <li>More compatibility with Silverlight Accessibility for UIA Clients.</li> <li>Caching improvements in UIA Client API.</li> <li>Support for custom providers and client-side providers.</li> </ul> <p>As well as where you can find the packages:</p> <ul> <li>openSUSE 11.2 - <a href="http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Mono:/UIA/openSUSE_11.2/mono-uia.ymp">1-Click Install</a></li> <li>Ubuntu Karmic Koala - <a href="https://edge.launchpad.net/~mono-a11y/+archive/releases">Package Archive on Launchpad</a></li> <li>Fedora 12 - <a href="http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Mono:/UIA/Fedora_12/">Repository on openSUSE Build Service</a></li> <li><a href="http://mono-a11y.org/releases/2.1/sources/">Source tarballs</a></li> </ul> <p>For more details – <a title="UIA Team Blog" href="http://www.mono-a11y.org/2010/08/mono-accessibility-2-1-released/" target="_blank">The UIA Team Blog</a></p> </article> <article> <h1>Wanted: Mozilla Linux Accessibility Developer</h1> <p>David Bolter — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 10:34:00 -0500</p> The Mozilla Corporation is seeking a software developer for an exciting opportunity to hack in our Linux accessibility layer. The successful candidate will make core code additions and improvements to the accessibility engine used by the award winning Firefox browser, and other gecko based applications.<br /><br />Requirements: <br />C, C++ <br />Team player with good communication habits <br /><br />Bonus: <br />Atk, AT-SPI <br />Familiarity or fascination with assistive technology (AT) <br /><br />Scope of work:<br />6 month contract. Rate negotiable. <br /><br />Details of work: <br /> Your primary duties will consist of working with the Mozilla team to fix gecko Linux accessibility bugs. This may include performance profiling of Firefox, Thunderbird, at-spi, and AT such as the Orca screen reader against cases where there is user perceivable slowness. You will work with the Mozilla accessibility team and the Linux accessibility community (primarily the Orca team) to prioritize and fix the most critical bugs. You may also be able to help bring the existing Orca + Firefox automated tests to an acceptable level and design and assemble an automated nightly test setup. You may also have the opportunity to collaboratively make improvements to the Linux accessibility infrastructure (at-spi2).<br /><br />If interested please send a plain text résumé to: the first letter of my first name joined to my entire last name, at mozilla dot com.<div></div> </article> </main></body></html>

Planet-Accessibility

2010.2 Release Schedule

Why Can't Microsoft Build a Screen Reader into Windows?

JAWS, IE/Firefox and TITLE Attributes