Besides Personal Information Mangement (PIM, which Christian Mollekopf will blog about soon) the big slogan for the Randa Meetings this year will be: Make KDE more accessible.
Accessibility is the big topic. But what does accessibility mean regarding KDE and what else do we want to make more accessible?
Per definition accessibility “refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people who experience disabilities.” So our plan is to improve our software regarding keyboard usage (shortcuts, focus handling etc.), keyboard input in general, speech input and output and offering design, themes and user interfaces with different contrast levels and easy ways to change fonts.
But to fix problems in the code regarding these things we first need to know about them and what to look out for. So if you are a user of our software and see problems we need you as well. People who know the problems, use computers and can tell us what to fix are welcome too. Plus of course people who write and improve documentation with respect to keyboard handling etc. And if you know of other free software projects that should be in Randa: please poke them and/or us.
So what about other ways to make our software more accessible? Porting and integrating our software to new platforms is another way of helping. Or checking that different fonts and writing system different from the latin alphabet used in standard English are supported. Topics like right-to-left text display and input are a good fit for our topic this year as well, as are alternative input methods, like touch input (for kids or people who can’t read, type or write or just for convenience).
Oh and let’s not forget the different distribution channels that offer access to our software: GNU/Linux distributions, app stores, package formats, packaging efforts in general and even continuous integration.
There is so much work to be done and many possibilities for improvement. If you can, would and want to work on some of these topics, don’t hesitate to go to the KDE Events page and register yourself for the Randa Meetings this year. We would love to welcome you from Saturday, 10th to Sunday, 16th of September this year in Randa, Switzerland.
And don’t hesitate to contact us if there are any open questions or suggestions.
We’re reachable via IRC (in #randa on freenode.net) or via email (randa At KDE org).
Let’s make KDE more accessible together and bring your awesome KDE projects to more people!
You wrote: ‘But to fix problems in the code regarding these things we first need to know about them and what to look out for.’ This is easy:
Day 1: Disconnect everyone’s mouses, making them only use the keyboard.
Day 2: Reconnect the mouses, but disconnect the keyboards (perhaps just for an hour or two – programming without a keyboard is hard).
Day 3: Reduce everyone’s screen resolution to 1280 × 1024 or 1368 × 768. Or increase the default font size settings by 50%.
Day 4: Turn off everyone’s monitors, at least for an hour or two. How well is the text-to-speech service working in KDE software?
Not a bad idea these tips. Thanks.
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