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KDE Accessibility tools

Jack Wallen — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:25:03 +0000

For those with disabilities, using a computer can be a serious challenge. Whether it’s a vision impairment or physical challenge making the most of the PC seems nearly impossible. That is why, on every platform, you will find accessibility tools that strive to make the use of the PC desktop possible, even to those with physical disabilities can.

Of course Linux is not without such tools. Both the GNOME and the KDE desktop have tools who’s purpose is to make life a little bit easier. On the KDE desktop there are two particular tools that tackle that task: KMag and KMouseTool. In this article I will introduce you to both of these tools so you can make them available to anyone in need.

Installation

The only installation necessary is the installation of the KDE desktop. Once that is complete the tools will be found in main KDE menu under Start > Applications > Utilities. Let’s take a look at these tools one at a time.

KMagnifier

Figure 1

KMag (as it is referred to) is a KDE branch of the old XMag tool and does exactly as you would think it does – it magnifies a portion of the screen so those with vision impairments can see the screen (see Figure 1). KMag has three modes:

Follow Mouse Mode: This will magnify the portion of the screen where the mouse is. It is the default behavior. This mode takes up the smallest amount of real estate on the screen.

Selection Window Mode: This will magnify the currently selected window. This mode takes up more screen real estate to function properly.

Whole Screen Mode: This mode will magnify the whole screen. I’m not sure why this mode is included as it is fairly challenging to use.

You can also adjust the magnification level by selecting from the Zoom in drop down. Understand that the more magnification you get, the blurrier the image will be. Around the 1:5 ratio zoom things start to get a bit too fuzzy to read. You can also stop and start KMag so that when you do not need it it is not doing its thing. Finally KMag has a built-in screen shot tool so you can snag images of a portion of the screen magnified. This comes in handy when creating how-to documentation for those with vision imparements.

KMouseTool

KMouseTool is a KDE tool that serves one purpose, it clicks the mouse for you. For anyone with a disability that affects normal use of the fingers, this can be one of the best tools available. How this works is when the mouse pauses for a set interval the left mouse button is clicked. It’s actually quite easy to use. You move your mouse to what you want to click on, you pause, and the mouse button is clicked.

You can also enable Smart Move which means once the mouse button is clicked (after a pause), after another brief pause (the default is 1/10 second) the mouse button is clicked and held. This enables clicking and dragging.

Figure 2

In order to enable these features you have to open up the KMouseTool window, set them, click Apply, and then close the settings window (see Figure 2). You will probably want to configure this to Start with KDE. When you do there will be an icon for KMouseTool in the notification area where you can start and stop the feature.

The only drawback to KMouseTool is there is no way to define a right mouse click. Other than that it is ideal for those with such debilitation as arthritis.

Final thoughts

Linux is certainly available for everyone. And with the right tools, it is even possible to make it available to those with disabilities. Both KMag and KMouseTool makes Linux possible for those who might not have been able to without such tools.

Microsoft Office Add-ins Manager

Martin Brinkmann — Sun, 10 May 2009 12:36:04 +0000

Add-ins are a great way of increasing the functionality of Microsoft Office. Some add-ins are compatible with all Microsoft Office programs while others only work in specific applications such as the email client Microsoft Outlook or the presentation software Microsoft PowerPoint. Microsoft Office does not however provide an easily accessible interface to manage all add-ins that are currently installed which is why Topalt’s EnableDisable, a startup manager for Microsoft Office add-ins, might come in handy. Not all add-ins are needed all the time and some even slow down the startup or performance of Microsoft Office programs.

The Office add-in startup manager provides the means to disable Microsoft Office add-ins comfortably. The program will display all add-ins, enabled or disabled, that are currently installed in Microsoft Office. It sorts the add-ins in tabs that refer to the Microsoft Office program that they are installed in. Displayed are tabs for Microsoft Access, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Word.

The listings contain checkboxes, the startup type of the individual add-in, its name and description. The Office add-in will be loaded if the checkbox is checked. All it takes to disable an add-in is to uncheck it in the program.

EnableDisable might also come in handy to permanently disable add-ins in Microsoft Office in case they are not needed at all. All in all a very straightforward comfortable tool to manage Microsoft Office add-ins.

Google Bot has privileges

Martin Brinkmann — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 06:36:03 +0000

Last year I was describing a way to get into the website Experts-Exchange.com by disguising yourself as the Googlebot. Apparently a similar story makes its way around the Internet these days with a more detailed approach detailing the steps that you have to partake to be identified as Googlebot.

It is not enough to simply change the User-Agent string to Googlebot if the website in question checks for cookies, uses Javascript for detection or compares the IP to make sure it is indeed in Google’s IP range. Using just the User-Agent might work to gain access into some websites but others probably will not work because they perform additional checks.

Here are the five factors that are important:

IP: Use Google Translate to surf the site
User-Agent: Use the Firefox Extension User-Agent Switcher and add the information about Googlebot.
Javascript: Use a Firefox Extension like No Script to turn it off.
Cookies: Use the Firefox Extension Cookie Safe to block cookies that the site tries to set.
Referrer: Use the Firefox Extension RefControl to disable the Referrer.

The website describing the techniques is currently down because it was not able to handle the massive amount of visitors that Digg and other sites sent to it.