marjaerwin

Cross-posted from Tumblr: http://ananiujitha.tumblr.com/post/81514629549/a-few-ideas-to-make-computers-more-accessible-for

1. Ergonomics matter.

2. Anything should be accessible using either mouse, touchpad, or keyboard. Nothing should require two-handed keyboard use, or excessive stretching during one-handed keyboard use. Nothing should require tapping, gestures, or exceptional coordination during touchpad use, because users slip. Nothing schould require painful scrollwheels. Therefore:

3. Whenever input requires coordination, either make everything bigger and easier-to-use, or break complicated maneuvers into simpler ones, or allow typed input instead of coordination based input. For example:

3A. You should be able to use bigger buttons and wider scrollbars.

3B. You should be able to break complex multi-layered menus, which collapse if users slip, into multiple smaller menus, or you can allow users to open the menu into its own window.

3C. You should be able to supplement sliders and other tools requiring precise inputs, with typed alternatives to slider control. Users may face issues with LibreOffice, YouTube, and power management settings, among others.

3D. If these are a challenge to programmers, the idea is to make these less of a challenge to ordinary disabled users.

4. From personal experience, I’ve found Gnome 2 and MacOS relatively accessible, with certain fixes [although MacOS scrollbars are too narrow], and Unity, Xfce, Kde, and Windows relatively inaccessible for various reasons. I find it very helpful to be able to use the Gnome 2 top panel to open stuff and the Gnome 2 bottom panel to switch between stuff. I also find it helpful to have all the menus in the top panel, and to have open finder windows persist from one login to the next. I find it very unhelpful to have to navigate through various multi-layered menus, based in one corner of the screen, to reach anything.

4A. I am currently using a Mint live usb to try to see if I can configure similar panels. I have been able to set up a top panel, with three menus, instead of one oversided menu in Mate; it requires installing an extra applet in Cinnamon. I have not yet been able to set up Gnome 2 style functionality for the bottom panel. I have not yet found a way to specify the panels in each medu, left to right, without the clumsy and clumsy-inacessible need to manualy slide items to their places on the panel, in Mate. No good, that.