thank you

[Joanmarie Diggs]

Hi Jonathan.

> I'm a blind Linux user and would like to thank you for creating this list.
> I'm excited to see XFCE working with orca and can't wait to see what comes
> out of this.

Yeah, I'm pretty psyched too.

Earlier this evening I posted an update on the orca-list. [1] There I
explained in my typical verbose fashion approximately what the present
state is from the Orca side of things. Hopefully quite soon I'll have
more detailed and specific instructions.

> Do you know if the  version of ubuntu 11.10 which is the beta
> will have any of the latest support of orca with XFCE?

Well, I cannot speak for Ubuntu, and downstream/distro-specific
questions should probably be asked in downstream/distro-specific lists
and/or IRC channels. Having said that....

As I mentioned on the orca-list, my goal is to add support for the new
D-Bus based accessibility activation into Orca master in time for code
freeze (aka it will be included upstream in Orca 3.2). Similarly,
Mike's changes to AT-SPI2 which make that D-Bus based accessibility
activation support possible were recently committed. So they too will
ship in upstream GNOME 3.2. With this in mind, in my experience both
Ubuntu and Fedora include the upstream stable releases shortly after
they've been released. Thus I would expect both Ubuntu 11.10 and
Fedora 16 to have all the required accessibility bits you'll need so
that you can use Orca with XFCE -- once you build XFCE. <smile>

The reason you'll likely need to build XFCE is because while some of
it is accessible now (version 4.8), the truly accessible XFCE will be
4.10. And it is my understanding that the XFCE team is aiming for a
Novemberish release. So presumably both Fedora 16 and Ubuntu 11.10
will ship XFCE 4.8 simply because you cannot ship what has not yet
been released. <smile> Do keep in mind that XFCE is super easy to
build and that I'll be providing instructions specific to Orca users
on what you need to build and how. I've got them drafted already for
Fedora and will write some up for Ubuntu soon.

> Again thanks for your willingness to work on accessibility.

Ya know, I'd take that a step further and thank them for their
*eagerness* to work on accessibility. The XFCE developers approached
the Accessibility Team to ask us what they need to do to make XFCE
accessible; we didn't go looking for them hoping they'd be "willing"
to do the right thing. And I think that is incredibly cool -- and it
is very much appreciated.

Anyhoo, I hope I answered all your questions. If not, you know where
to find me. <smile>
--joanie

[1] https://mail.gnome.org/archives/orca-list/2011-September/msg00117.html