GSoC 2017: Accessibility - Week 1

Posted 7 years ago

Hello!

I have been working on navigation commands to get to the next element and previous element of the score.
Below, I have written the key tasks I have completed, some tasks that stalled and the plan for next week.

Key accomplishments so far

I have been working on two navigation commands, next element and previous element. These commands select the next or previous element of the score. Elements like fingering and other note attached elements, articulation, lyrics, annotations and spanners are selected as well as major elements like notes, rests and clefs.
I am currently testing the commands and fixing some bugs. Most of the work is done.

Key tasks that stalled

Selection of spanners: This took some time, as spanners cannot be accessed from a score element. They need to be accessed from a global list.

Multiple staves: I had to make modifications so that the commands would work when the score has multiple staves. I fixed this by taking into account the active staff while finding the next element.

Tasks in the upcoming week

I plan to remove any remaining bugs from the next element and previous element commands. I would also like to start working on making all palette symbols keyboard accessible. There are a few approaches that have been considered so far.
One approach is to add shortcut commands for all palette symbols.
Another approach is to use the palette search feature and make the palettes navigable by keyboard, using the arrow keys. A shortcut command for palette search could be added, and the the search could be extended to search for palette names, apart from palette symbols.
I would like some feedback on which approach would be better, so that I can start working on the navigation of palettes. Please feel free to comment below.

Thanks,
Divya
Github: https://github.com/divya-urs

Comments

• Jun 4, 2017 - 19:37

For palettes, I think the first approach is unworkable simply because there are far too many palette elements for individual shortcuts. The second sounds like the way to go.

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• Jun 4, 2017 - 19:47

Great work so far!

Regarding shortcuts, when commenting on this proposal, do keep in mind that ultimately we also hope to have palettes navigable by keyboard. There is already a search facility in 3.0 that works like the other searches (Symbols palette, for example), all that is really needed is a way to traverse the results by keyboard and apply the current element using Enter. So everything on the palettes would autoamtically be keyboard accessible. The shortcut scheme would be for extra efficiency on top of that, to allow your most used symbols to be applied easier.

At least, that's one way of thinking about this.

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• Jun 5, 2017 - 01:00

Thanks for the update Divya! I guess we can use both approaches somehow. Approach one would allow you to assign shortcuts to add for instance fingerings quickly to notes.

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