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Is there documentation about how to get started with at-spi somewhere that I just haven't been able to find online? https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/accessibil

Is there documentation about how to get started with at-spi somewhere that I just haven't been able to find online? https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/accessibility/atk/at-spi/start https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/accessibility/atk/at-spi/st... exists, but is fairly unapproachable and it's not clear to me as a developer where I would start if I was trying to either build an application that hooked into at-spi or to set up automated tests for at-spi events on my own software. The common advice is always "use a graphical toolkit", but let's say I'm stepping outside of a toolkit like GTK and I'm building something smaller, or let's say that I want to build a toy screenreader of my own. I've had an awful time trying to find documentation about this stuff.

nolist_policy 3y ago
Here[1] is a good introduction. And here[2] are links to the library and dbus[3] reference documentation. [1] https://en.trycht.cz/2023/12/15/down-and-down-exploring-the-implementation-of-the-accessibility-subsystem https://en.trycht.cz/2023/12/15/down-and-down-exploring-the-... [2] https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/at-spi2-core/-/blob/main/README.md https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/at-spi2-core/-/blob/main/READ... [3] https://gnome.pages.gitlab.gnome.org/at-spi2-core/devel-docs/xml-interfaces.html https://gnome.pages.gitlab.gnome.org/at-spi2-core/devel-docs...
- danShumway 3y ago
  Genuinely thanks, I was familiar with the second two links but the first link in particular is useful. I've been trying to get a handle around the inner workings of Linux accessibility in my spare time for a while, so I'm grateful for more resources. So this is not meant to be dismissive of you, I really do appreciate it, but also wow this is still pretty anemic documentation compared to most other tech fields. I kind of wonder if this is also a chicken-and-egg problem because the way the healthy documentation springs up around projects is enough people use the projects that they run into issues, they start documenting best practices... and in areas like Linux accessibility where (as I understand it) there are often like 10-20 people total working on the technologies behind it at any given time, that community isn't going to exist and we're going to get tutorials that say stuff like: > Of course, there are much more interfaces to use or implement for specific objects, like the Text interface for text controls, Table interface for tables, etc., but the principles of these interfaces are the same, just a normal DBus programming with all it entails. So there aren't going to be a ton of people doing interesting things in that field or digging into how stuff works, which means it's not going to have people available to help make the field more approachable. But again, I do appreciate the resources you did find.

nolist_policy 3y ago

Here[1] is a good introduction. And here[2] are links to the library and dbus[3] reference documentation. [1] https://en.trycht.cz/2023/12/15/down-and-down-exploring-the-implementation-of-the-accessibility-subsystem https://en.trycht.cz/2023/12/15/down-and-down-exploring-the-... [2] https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/at-spi2-core/-/blob/main/README.md https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/at-spi2-core/-/blob/main/READ... [3] https://gnome.pages.gitlab.gnome.org/at-spi2-core/devel-docs/xml-interfaces.html https://gnome.pages.gitlab.gnome.org/at-spi2-core/devel-docs...

danShumway 3y ago
Genuinely thanks, I was familiar with the second two links but the first link in particular is useful. I've been trying to get a handle around the inner workings of Linux accessibility in my spare time for a while, so I'm grateful for more resources. So this is not meant to be dismissive of you, I really do appreciate it, but also wow this is still pretty anemic documentation compared to most other tech fields. I kind of wonder if this is also a chicken-and-egg problem because the way the healthy documentation springs up around projects is enough people use the projects that they run into issues, they start documenting best practices... and in areas like Linux accessibility where (as I understand it) there are often like 10-20 people total working on the technologies behind it at any given time, that community isn't going to exist and we're going to get tutorials that say stuff like: > Of course, there are much more interfaces to use or implement for specific objects, like the Text interface for text controls, Table interface for tables, etc., but the principles of these interfaces are the same, just a normal DBus programming with all it entails. So there aren't going to be a ton of people doing interesting things in that field or digging into how stuff works, which means it's not going to have people available to help make the field more approachable. But again, I do appreciate the resources you did find.