Linux/X11 Accessibility

[bpetty]

I was wondering if there was an accessibility API on Linux/X11 like there is in Windows.

So far I can get a list of visible windows and their handles, but I can not drill down into their controls. I am working on a Text To Speech application and I want to be able to have it read data, like from a text widget for example, for various applications. I can not figure out how to do this under X11.

Any advice?

[wysota]

I was wondering if there was an accessibility API on Linux/X11 like there is in Windows.

Yes, sure.

Start with this:
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Accessibility-HOWTO/

[bpetty]

That isn't really what I am looking for.

A lot of what you provided is about making a large cursor, blowing up sections of the screen, and TTS for command line applications.

I'd like to be able to pull the text from a text edit control from any Qt application, for example.
I know this is possible under Windows and Mac OS X.
I don't think X11 allows for this. I'd just like to verify that. If so, I'd like to figure out how to tap into it.

[wysota]

If you can live with using Qt then it has support for cross-platform accessibility.

[bpetty]

Awesome. That is exactly what I am looking for.

Here are two links I found if anyone is interested:

http://doc.trolltech.com/4.5/qaccess...sibleInterface
http://doc.trolltech.com/qq/qq24-accessibility.html

I have seen some good examples for adding accessibility to custom widgets.
The only thing I am not sure about is writing the "AT Client" part.

How do I get my application to access the accessibility objects of another application?
I would assume I'd give it an x11 window handle.
Pass it in via installRootObjectHandler()?

Thanks again wysota

[bpetty]

So I did a little more research since the Qt Accessibility stuff didn't really give me what I wanted. I guess I am looking for a AT-SPI C/C++ library. The only one that looks like it is maintained is one with python bindings. Do you use: libatspi?

I am just interested in what people use.
Is the d-bus version not being worked on anymore?
I tried contacting KDE to tell them that their accessibility page is out of date and contains bad links... but the email address they say to use is no longer available. ha!!

It is almost like no one is working on this anymore. I can't find a recent project site for a C/C++ AT-SPI library. Gnome has "documentation" on it... but they dont really tell you anything about the library or its development. It is a little odd.

The most up to date page I have found: http://www.linuxfoundation.org/en/Accessibility
It is like after 2007 everyone stopped working on this thing.
Maybe I am missing something obvious... but if you guys have any insight... let me know.

I might try contacting a few people at Qt to see if they can throw me in the right direction. If I found out I'll post it here.

[bpetty]

Ok, after talking to some people from Qt, people on the AT-SPI mailing list, etc... it sounds like AT-SPI is essentially dead.
Sure in 5-10 years they may have a standard based on D-BUS... but essentially it sounds like accessability under Linux is dead... unless you want to stick with the old Cobra stuff which wont work on anything but Gnome... and you use python.

Here is a link I was given: http://labs.trolltech.com/page/Proje...ty/QDBusBridge
Looks like this thing is going to be the basis for "next gen." accessability clients for Linux.

Apparently some of the D-BUS stuff is in the Qt Demo App. I'll have to check it out.

[miwarre]

Hello bpetty,

Any new in this?

For a project of mine, I'm interested in multi-platform TTS solutions too. TTS would be a rather secondary feature of it, however (and the text to be spoken are in Chinese, which does not make things easier...).

So for the moment I'm content to having it under Windows (SAPI) but not under Linux. But I'm definitely interested in knowing more about Linux TTS solutions.

Thanks,

Miwarre