GSoC 2021 - Week-4: Improving Accessibility For the Visually Impaired

Posted 2 years ago

Greetings!
I hope everyone is staying safe and doing well.

This week brought around a re-work of the UI for Accessibility settings. The core functionality of the features is retained, with changes being introduced on how these functionalities are presented to the user. This means that some pieces of code need to be plucked and put into other files, and some of the other pieces will inevitably go to waste.
The new design calls for the settings to be placed under the "Appearance" tab itself, with the new "Accessibility" tab being scrapped. (You'll notice that the "Accessibility" page is still present in the screenshots below. I just wanted to make sure everything was moved safely to the other tab before deleting it completely)

I have made some progress in achieving this new design. This is still an early draft, as there are some discrepancies and it doesn't quite behave like I want it to, but the foundations have been placed.

(Side-Note: You may notice the the pictures shown below aren't quite aligned with the rest of the text...
This is because of a small (5-7px) transparent border around the "Preferences" menu, which provides a sort of shadow-y effect when open in MuseScore.
The screenshot tool takes this transparent border into account when grabbing a screenshot of the window.)

General Themes Screen:

NewDesignGeneral.png

High-Contrast Themes Screen:

NewDesignHC_Black.png


I have also implemented the "Reset Theme to Default" button, which will reset all UI Color properties that you may have modified to your convenience (This will only restore the default values for the theme that is currently selected).

Before:

ResetThemeBefore.png

After:

ResetThemeAfter.png


For the next week, I have my work cut out for me.
This includes:

  • Fully implement the new design.
  • Merging and incorporating code made in other PR's (on the same files I am working on) into my own PR.
  • Complete the NavCtrl Border issue assigned to me on GitHub (so far, it seems like an easy fix).
  • Add borders to other MS4 elements that I left out in my latest commit.
  • Add borders to elements that were ported from MS3, which are in the form of .ui files. I don't have any prior experience working with these files, but how hard could it really be.

That is it for this week. Please be sure to share your thoughts, ideas and criticisms in the comment section below.
While you're at it, please also be sure to check out the blog posts of my peers, and remember, kind words and constructive feedback keeps us going :)


You can keep up with my progress at the following locations:


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