Steve Lee :: Blog :: Mozilla grant for improving switch access to Firefox.

We are "go" on Mozilla OSK proposal

Is how Frank Hecker, director of the Mozilla Foundation, announced the board approval of our Accessibilty Grant application to Optimise Switch and Alternative Pointer Access to Firefox on Windows. The program will enable users with physical disabilities such as cerebral palsy to more freely and transparently access the wealth of website services that provide information, social communication, work and fun. Firefox provides a proven, highly usable, popular and standards conforming tool for life on the web. We aim to make Firefox more usable by individuals who have a hard time accessing technology.

Arriving at this point has been made possible by Aaron Leventhal, the lead of the Mozilla Accessibility activity and organiser of the recent Mozilla Accessibility Summit. Aaron has been awesome in supporting and guiding me through the process, inviting me to the Summit, providing encouragement and adding ideas that have helped to craft the proposal. My thanks also go to Frank Hecker for being committed to accessibility, and of course all the board members for being supportive. 

But this is only a stop on a roadmap for the greater vision of simplifying switch and alternative pointer access to Linux, Mac and Windows. The OSK-ng project wants to foster innovation in an area which is underdeveloped when compared to  the state of the art in Assistive Technology such as screen readers. A goal is to allow users to interact with a pallet of devices, methods and gestures that suit their abilities and preferences. That includes on screen keyboards, direct in-application selection for control and Dasher or speech for text. Integration of output capabilities such as graphics, symbols and speech will allow for use as Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) devices such a Voice Output Communication Aids (VOCA).

So here is the Proposal (pdf). I've already had some good feedback and will incorporate it in an on-line version. Hopefully it doubles as a useful if brief introduction to the switch user's world of computer access.

[Update Jan 07] We now have a project name, Jambu.  Plus I've started a project website on the www.0atsoft.org project forge.

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