[Qgis-psc] Question on QGIS Accessibility issues

Mon May 17 07:27:39 PDT 2021

Good Morning Richard,

First I just want to thank you all for emailing and including me in this process, it truly means a lot.

As for the suggested QWidget and creating the pdf with all the shortcuts, I am more than willing to give it a chance and keep you posted.

Thank you,
Simon-Pierre

Simon-Pierre Lemieux | CAD Technologist
MTE Consultants Inc.
P: 519-743-6500  | SLemieux at mte85.com

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-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Duivenvoorde <rdmailings at duif.net>
Sent: Monday, May 17, 2021 4:32 AM
To: Marco Bernasocchi <marco at qgis.org>; Randal Hale <rjhale at northrivergeographic.com>; Anita Graser <anita at qgis.org>
Cc: QGIS PSC List <qgis-psc at lists.osgeo.org>; Simon-Pierre Lemieux <SLemieux at mte85.com>
Subject: Re: [Qgis-psc] Question on QGIS Accessibility issues

Hi Simon-Pierre,

Once I've been part of a development team to create a mapping website which had some Accessibility features:
- interface had to be resizable (a lot!) without breaking functions
- should be usasble/navigable without mouse, only keyboard functions
- data shown in images also as text (for text2speech) etc

It was super cool to see what was possible, IF we invested time (a lot of time...) in this.
But the best part was to actually see a person (a young man with very very bad sight) navigating through the site (actually 'testing' if for compliance) by resizing it to huge proportions on an already huge screen and making parts of the screen be 'spoken' to him...

I think it is best if people needing such features to come up with idea's and most needed options.
In my experience some things are actually doable and not difficult, but just to much hassle during development to actually do (in web sites for example, add the 'alt' label for images so somebody can 'hear' what is in a site).
And then make a hackfest/paid/crowdsourced/whatever event around it?

The context menu with recent actions... I do not think we have machinery for it (yet) so that would not be that easy? (dev's plz correct me if I'm wrong) But things like: make pdf's available to show all keyboard shortcuts ([0] and [1]) seem easier.

Qt also has some framework: "Accessibility for QWidget Applications" but not sure how usable that is.

As said: before trying to implement something heavy, to me it seems best to first 'pick the low hanging fruit' (IF there is any), guided by somebody who is actually needing such features. For others (like me) it is very difficult to envision such things and the need for it.

Regards,

Richard Duivenvoorde

[0] https://north-road.com/qgis-3-0-shortcuts/
[1] https://github.com/qgis/QGIS/issues/40995
[2] https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/accessible-qwidget.html

On 5/16/21 2:08 PM, Marco Bernasocchi wrote:
> HI Randal,
> thank s a lot for bringing this up.
> I'm not aware of any such groups, but maybe others in the PSC are. Anita, maybe you know in academia?
>
> I'll bring up the subject in the next PSC meeting in June.
>
> Cheers
> Marco
>
> On Fri, 14 May 2021 at 13:43, Randal Hale <rjhale at northrivergeographic.com <mailto:rjhale at northrivergeographic.com>> wrote:
>
>     Good morning, afternoon, etc
>
>     I've been teaching QGIS certified classes virtually this year (thanks to
>     the pandemic) which has allowed a wide range of people to take the
>     classes. The intro class is always a lively discussion of QGIS things:
>     tools, community, and "how does it work". I've cc'd Simon on this as he
>     brought up a question for which I haven't a good answer - which after
>     thinking about it and talking to Nyall I'm emailing the PSC.
>
>     During the discussion on the QGIS Interface Simon asked "Are there
>     options with QGIS to help people with accessibility/mobility issues?".
>     In my mapping life this has come up a few times but not lately. Simon
>     uses CAD software (and other software) that collects the last few
>     commands into a "right click" (Context menu) and allows for easier
>     navigation. For a large number of QGIS Users, navigating the interface
>     isn't that big of an issue. I do it daily without thinking. For Simon
>     this is a challenge - Navigating the interface is a bit more difficult
>     due to mobility issues. He thoroughly enjoyed the QGIS and the class and
>     hopefully will become a long time user.
>
>     I guess the question is - are there any groups, persons, etc that do
>     work on the QGIS interface for persons that have accessibility issues?
>     As I said for me moving from processing tools to project properties to
>     layer properties isn't a problem - but for some it is. By asking I'm
>     volunteering and I will do what I can to help - but I figure this is as
>     good of a place to start as any.
>
>     Thanks for your time. I've cc'd Simon on this but he is not subscribed
>     to the PSC list (I wasn't until this morning) but he is very willing to
>     answer questions and help also.
>
>     Randy
>
>     --
>     Randal Hale
>     rjhale at northrivergeographic.com <mailto:rjhale at northrivergeographic.com>
>     (p) 423.653.3611
>     http://www.northrivergeographic.com
> <http://www.northrivergeographic.com>
>
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>
>
> --
> Marco Bernasocchi
>
> QGIS.org Chair
> OPENGIS.ch CEO
> http://berna.io <http://berna.io>
>
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