Setup.exe: Keyboard accessibility

[Steve Holmes]

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I just installed Cygwin and setup.exe last Thu Feb. 17th 2005 with the
most recent version available.  I should begin with the fact that I'm
totally blind and use an audio screen reader to identify screen
contents.  The way to most effectively navigate the screen's controls
found in any windows dialog is via the keyboard; particularly,
pressing the tab key to jump from control to control and using the
arrow keys to move up and down through list and combo boxes.

It so happens that most of setup.exe works fine out of the box except
for one major issue.  The package selection portion is completely
inaccessible and unusable by a blind person trying to use the keyboard
to navigate it.  The rest of the dialogs for setup seem OK.

I am a programmer so would be willing to attempt a fix to make this
more accessible by allowing keyboard access to the selection control.
At this point, I can't even gain keyboard focus to it by clicking on
it with the screen reader's mouse emulation keys.  In other words, I
can use our mouse emulation keys to read that part of the selection
that is currently visible, click the options such as category names,
default/install/uninstall..., but I cannot scroll the list at all! To
really make this think work at all, we need to enable keyboard focus
to the list, allow scrolling up and down that list with arrow keys,
Change the selection statuses by hitting the space bar like is done
with Microsoft Office's installer, and set a tab stop for this control
so it can be accessed by hitting the tab key as one "walks" through
the dialog.

This may sound like a list of demands but is really crucial for any
blind person wanting to use Cygwin with addaptive technology like
screen readers.  I would be willing to help with these improvements
though I might need to ask some questions on here to be sure I
*REALLY* know what I'm doing:).

I saw this subject brought up on this list several months ago in the
archives but I did not find any answers to the original questions
posted by someone else.  So here is that subject again.

If you have any further questions about blind accessibility and the
like, feel free to shout, and I'm sure I and any other blind users
lerking about will be more than glad to answer.

It was suggested that I pull from CVS to begin this effort; is that
still the case?

- -- 
HolmesGrown Solutions
The best solutions for the best price!
http://ld.net/?holmesgrown
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