[[!toc levels=2]]

# Rationale

Tails should be usable by every [[target user|contribute/design]],
regardless of their abilities or inabilities. Only other key
requirements of [[Tails design|contribute/design]] (such as Free
Software and maintainability) shall limit this one.

Tails therefore needs to ship with accessibility technologies.

# Enabling accessibility features

These accessibility tools could be  enabled at boot time by people who
need it, by passing `access=` option(s) to live-boot:

	access=ACCESS
	  Set the accessibility level for physically or visually
	  impared users.
	  ACCESS must be one of v1, v2, v3, m1, or m2. v1=lesser
	  visual impairment, v2=moderate visual impairment,
	  v3=blindness, m1=minor motor difficulties, m2=moderate motor
	  difficulties.

We might want to use the syslinux boot menu to enable accessibility features.

However, live-boot 3.0~a27-1 removed this feature: "Removing outdated
and broken accessibility script, this will be redone in
live-config properly." This did not happen upstream.

# Visual

Orca does not work with iceweasel yet. Also think of the Unsafe Browser.

# Motor

live-boot's `access=m1` and `access=m2` options enable various GNOME
options suitable for people having motor difficulties. This might be
enough.

We also probably want to install the `dasher` graphical predictive
text input system, that adds eyetracking into the mix. It brings 10MB
.deb files in: [[todo/install_dasher]].

# Resources

* [[!debwiki accessibility-devel]]
* [[!debwiki accessibility]]

# Archive: discarded tools

## Compiz

We have been told that Compiz is the preferred accessibility solution
for some people with sight impairment; such features Compiz includes are:

- inverting colors: good for the color blind or those who need better
  contrast
- looking glass: (small area of screen enlarged) good for those who
  still like to see the whole desktop while working. This one provides
  some nice graphics too.
- magnifier: like looking glass but without the other graphics
- sharpen: makes the entire desktop look sharper for better readability
- track mouse: (very helpful) it is very easy for a sight impaired
  person to loose their mouse. this feature helps prevent that. This
  is much clearer cut than the mouse tracking in gnome-mag.
- zoom: magnify the entire desktop

On the other hand, Compiz has not been in Debian since Wheezy
=> discarded.
