FreshApps
Cool new applications are constantly turning up in the open source landscape. In some cases it's quite clear the application will be widely used in the future, often replacing existing programs. Most of these are developed without much concern for accessibility as the focus is first to just get something working.
Because the process still has a lot of flexibility at the early stage it may be a good time to make the developers aware of the accessibility implications so that the 'right things' can be done as the project matures. By getting to these applications of the future at an early stage we can ensure that accessibility support will not be lagging behind other features on the free desktop.
Target projects
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A new and more intuitive way of managing files that may have important access implication. The uncluttered interface holds great promise for many groups. It probably just needs a few AT hooks in there and sensible keybindings. |
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A simple audio editor. Many visually impaired people work with music, so let's help make this app rock for them! |
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Cool new media center |
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Desktop search (Mono) |
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Photo management (Mono) |
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Desktop wiki (Mono) |
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Vector/bitmap desing program. OSS/Linux version in the works. |
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Will now support AT-SPI. A whole desktop in need of AT testing |
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Testing methods
In most cases this early testing doesn't involve detailed analysis and bug reporting. It should be enough to take the application for a quick test-run and give some general accessibility feedback to the developers. We then add it to the list below and track its progress as it develops.
You can use the formal GAP testing tools such as at-poke or just try running the app with a screen reader, high-viz theme, on-screen keyboard or magnifier and repoer any glitches to the developers. If it works well, you can report that back to and thank them 
There are also more automated tools under development that will facilitate automated testing, but that is more relevant for meturing applications with a stable interface.
Developer advice
You should first of all give an impression of your testing experience with the application at hand, but it might also be useful to provide some general background information, such as:
Accessibility/Testing/FreshApps (last edited 2008-08-06 16:37:48 by localhost)