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Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2012 13:37:29 -0500
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Subject: Re: AOO.Next IBM Priorities
From: Donald Harbison <dpharbison@gmail.com>
To: dev@openoffice.apache.org
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On Fri, Nov 9, 2012 at 8:23 AM, Steve Lee <steve@opendirective.com> wrote:

> Steve Lee
> OpenDirective - opendirective.com
> On Nov 2, 2012 7:59 AM, "Andre Fischer" <awf.aoo@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > On 01.11.2012 17:45, robert_weir@us.ibm.com wrote:
> >>
> >> A quick note, wearing my "IBM hat".
> >>
> >> We (IBM) have consulted with customers, internal users, other IBM
> product
> >> teams, on what our (IBM's) development priorities should be for the next
> >> AOO release.  Obviously, we're not the only ones with priorities or
> >> interests or opinions.  We don't make AOO decisions by ourselves.  But
> we
> >> want to be transparent about what our own priorities are, for our
> >> employees participating in the AOO community, and what they will be
> >> focusing on.   As we did with AOO 3.4.0 and 3.4.1, we'll be putting the
> >> details onto the wiki over the next couple of weeks.  You'll hear more
> at
> >> ApacheCon, but I wanted you to hear it hear first.
> >>
> >> Our top priorities:
> >>
> >> -- Improve the install and deployment experience, especially by
> supporting
> >> digital signatures on installs, and introducing a new incremental update
> >> feature, so users are not required to download and install a full image
> >> for just a minor update.
> >>
> >> -- A major UI enhancement, a sidebar framework for the editors, ported
> >> over from Symphony, and including an API.  If you recall, Symphony won
> >> quite a lot of praise for its UI, and much of this was due to the
> sidebar
> >> panel.  I think we can make a good argument that this approach, say
> >> compared to the MS Office "ribbon" is a better use of screen
> real-estate,
> >> especially as we see more frequent use of wide screen displays.
> >>
> >> -- Improved Table of Contents in Writer
> >>
> >> -- Improved system integration on Windows and MacOS, including possible
> >> adoption of "gestures".
> >>
> >> -- IAccessible2 bridge, ported over from Symphony, to improve
> >> accessibility.  This is a major effort, but very important.
> >
> >
> > I will be talking about IAccessible2 as stand in for Steve Yin at the
> ApacheCon.
> > Please meet me there at 11:45am on Nov 6 (Level 1 Left).
>
> Andre, sorry to mid your talk but I will check the slides. I have 2 points
> of information regarding the usefulness of the  IAccessible2 work. Neither
> are new but I thought worth restating now to support it being a priority..
>
> 1: I just had a conversation with one of developers of NVDA, the popular
> screen reader for blind access on Windows. He said right now the Windows
> Accessibility story is "terrible" in OSS office solutions. To repeat a
> previous observation, there is a real demand for this from the
> Accessibility community. This need is also wider than the those using
> assistive technology who have visual impairments.
>

Yes, I think we all violently agree that this gap needs to be addressed
successfully in the  AOO 4.x stream. I have consulted with our IBM Software
Distinguished Engineer for Accessibility on this. He has excellent contact
in university and at NVDA. I propose that we form an A11Y Working Group
within our project here in order to give this dedicated focus. One of the
challenges will be the need to finance some additional work. I doubt that
we'll be able to close all our gaps with 100% volunteer effort.

Do you support the concept of an A11Y WG?  We can use the wiki that Steve
Yin has already started as a base for our documents. Do you think it's
overkill to request a mailing list dedicated to A11Y be set up?


>
> 2: I also spotted Hubert Duerr's talk on automated testing in the ApacheCon
> programme and thought it worth mentioning that Accessibility APIs provides
> a powerful way to automate testing of and via the user interface. At least
> 2 Linux desktop testing frameworks take this approach using AT/API which is
> similar to IA2. I'm sure appealing to the testing market was the reason
> Microsoft named their updated Accessibility API "User Interface Automation,
> UIA"
>
> Steve Lee
> Open Directive
>
> >> -- Closer integration of clipart and template libraries with user
> >> experience.
> >>
> >> -- Update branding and visual styling, contemporary and compelling,
> fresh
> >> and relevant.
> >>
> >> -- Social integration, allow our users to quickly and easily share their
> >> thoughts in a way that compliment their commercial social behavior.
> >> Explore the integration of consumer service-specific capabilities as
> well
> >> as generic Share... actions.
> >>
> >> -- And many other smaller items
> >>
> >> Obviously the release date for this cannot be pinned down so early, and
> >> releasing is PMC decision, not an IBM one.  But we think that this work
> >> could be completed and tested for a release in the March/April 2013
> >> time-frame.  And the scope of the release might be significant enough to
> >> warrant a "4.0" designation.
> >>
> >> In any case, we'll soon set up a page on the wiki to collect these
> items.
> >> As always, I invite you to add your own priorities to the wiki, things
> >> that you would like to work on.  This could be a new feature.  Or, if
> one
> >> of the above items sound interesting to you, we always welcome help
> >> designing and implementing these features.
> >>
> >> Regards,
> >>
> >> -Rob
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
>

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