[ros-general] Status of accessibility components (MSAA/iAccessibility/UIA), NVDA compatibility etc

[Geoff Shang]

Hi,

I realise it's somewhat bad form to jump on a mailing list and immediately 
start posting, so I hope you'll forgive me.  But it looked like the most 
appropriate place to ask this.

I've been watching the project from afar for some time.  I am a big fan of 
open source and have been using console-mode Debian Linux as my primary 
operating system for almost 15 years.  But I am pragmatic enough to 
realise that we need alternatives, and that Windows cannot be ignored.  A 
free Windows alternative would be fantastic if realised.

As a blind person, I am very interested in the ability to use ReactOS with 
screen reading software such as NVDA which is open source, and others 
which are not.

Last time I looked into the status of accessibility APIs in ReactOS, it 
appeared that not much had been done.

After watching a presentation from Alex Ionescu yesterday on ReactOS and 
where it's at right now, and with Windows XP about to be end-of-lifed, I 
thought I'd look at this again.

A google of various appropriate terms turned up a number of encouraging 
things, most notably doxygen documentation which indicated work on the 
iaccessible/MSAA accessibility API.  This is most exciting, as the 
successor to this, iaccessible2, is I believe freely available and should 
not need to be reimplemented.  I don't know if there are plans to extend 
implementation to that provided by UI Automation in more recent operating 
systems and back-ported rather buggily to Windows XP, but my understanding 
is that this would provide even greater possibility for access 
(particularly if it didn't include the bugs!).

What I did not find, how ever, is any indication of the current status of 
this.  I didn't find any mention of it on the Wiki in Current Status, 
Missing Functionality or Community Funded Ideas.  There was nothing 
obvious to me in the Tech Wiki or the reference section, nor in the two 
most recent GSOC pages (I didn't go back any further).  I did find 
something on a page entitled Change Taskforce, basically saying that this 
would be a good thing to support and may lead to greater support from 
people like GSOC, but nothing else.  I also found a couple of emails like 
this one which don't appear to have been answered.

In case further justification is needed for this, apart from the obvious 
goal of enabling screen reader users to use ReactOS, the NVDA project has 
shown what blind developers are capable of.  Blind users would be able to 
report on accessibility issues in other parts of ReactOS and its various 
applications, and some would even be able to contribute by writing code or 
submitting translations.  It's pretty much impossible for a blind person 
to contribute to ReactOS if they can't use it.  Finally, it may be 
possible for the ReactOS project to either use existing software or 
develop their own that can conduct automated testing of ReactOS by using 
the accessibility APIs to both activate UI components and monitor the 
results.

I am writing to ask about the status, but I am also asking that this 
status be made available somewhere where people are likely to look for it, 
probably on the relevant wiki page.  This would mean that blind people 
would be able to start testing ReactOS if support is complete/near 
complete, and it would attract the interest of developers and interested 
doners if it is not.

Any information on this subject would be most welcome.

Thanks,
Geoff.