Assistive Technology Service Provider Interface: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Computer accessibility framework}}

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| latest release version = 2.26.2{{wikidata|property|reference|edit|P348}}

| latest release date = {{Start date and age|2017|10|30}}<ref>{{cite web wikidata| url = https://git.gnome.org/browse/at-spi2-core qualifier| title = AT-SPI git source code repository P348| accessdate = 2015-03-23 P577}}}}</ref>

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'''Assistive Technology Service Provider Interface''' ('''AT-SPI''') is a platform-neutral framework for providing bi-directional communication between [[assistive technologies]] (AT) and applications.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/accessibility/atk/at-spi/overview| title = ATK/AT-SPI SIG Overview | accessdate = 2014-04-10| archive-date = 2014-04-13| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140413132602/http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/accessibility/atk/at-spi/overview| url-status = dead}}</ref> It is the ''de facto'' standard for providing accessibility to free and open desktops, like GNU/[[Linux]] or [[OpenBSD]], led by the [[GNOME project|GNOME Project]].

One common nomenclature to explain an accessibility framework is a usual client-server architecture. In that way, [[Assistive technology#Computer accessibility|Assistive Technologies]] (ATs), likesuch as [[screen readers]], would be the clients of that framework, and computer applications would be the server. In this architecture, client and server need to communicate with each other, usually using the [[Inter-process communication|IPC]] technology of the platform. Ideally the accessibility framework exposes this to the client and server in a transparent way.

Usually the API for both client-side and server-side applications are the same, and the accessibility framework provides a client-side and a server-side implementation of that API. In the case of GNOME, there are two different APIs, one for the client-side (AT-SPI) and a different one for the server-side ([[Accessibility Toolkit]] (ATK)) due to historical reasons related to the underlying technologies.<ref name=webkitgtk>{{cite web|last=Sánchez Prada|first=Mario|title=Accessibility in [WebKit]GTK+|url=http://mariospr.org/2013/02/03/accessibility-in-webkitgtk/|date=February 3, 2013|accessdate=2014-04-10}}</ref>

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==Implementations==

AT-SPI was originally designed for using [[Common Object Request Broker Architecture]], an object-based [[Inter-process communication|IPC]]/[[Remote procedure call|RPC]] technology, for its transport protocol. The AT-SPI specification itself was tied to CORBA as it was defined in CORBA [[Interface description language|IDL]]. AT-SPI used the GNOME project's own fast and lightweight CORBA implementation, [[ORBit]], and its own framework for creating CORBA components, [[Bonobo (component model)|Bonobo]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Orca Documentation Series|url=https://www.mit.edu/~rjc/orca-docs.html|accessdate=2014-04-10|archive-date=2014-04-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140413132918/http://www.mit.edu/~rjc/orca-docs.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The GNOME project decided that the 3.0 release willwould be free of ORBit and Bonobo, meaning that a [[D-Bus]] AT-SPI solution was required.<ref>{{cite web|title=Planning for GNOME 3.0|url=https://wiki.gnome.org/ThreePointZero/Plan|accessdate=2014-04-10}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=GNOME 3 Porting Guide|url=https://wiki.gnome.org/DevGnomeOrg/Gnome3PortingGuide|accessdate=2014-04-10}}</ref> In an effort to move AT-SPI forward, a D-Bus project was started in November 2006. This took the form of a performance and design review available on the GNOME wiki. Work began on the implementation in May 2007.<ref>{{cite web|title=Accessibility/ATK/AT-SPI/AT-SPI on D-Bus|url=https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/en/AT-SPI_on_D-Bus#Background|accessdate=2014-04-10}}</ref> The D-Bus version of AT-SPI, AT-SPI version 2, was released along with GNOME 3.0 in April 2011.<ref>{{cite web|title=GNOME 3.0 released: better for users, developers|url=http://www.gnome.org/press/2011/04/gnome-3-0-released-better-for-users-developers-3/|accessdate=2014-04-10}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Git source code released with GNOME 3.0|url=https://git.gnome.org/browse/at-spi2-atk/log/?h=gnome-3-0|accessdate=2014-04-10}}</ref>

==Support==

AT-SPI provides an ATK bridge, so all thosethe widgetswidget systems or applications that implement ATK will automatically communicate all itstheir events, to AT-SPI. The GNOME widget system, [[GTK+]], or [[Mozilla]] applications like [[Firefox]] and [[Mozilla Thunderbird|Thunderbird]] for GNU/Linux implement ATK, so they communicate out-of-box with AT-SPI. However, it is completely possible to use AT-SPI without implementing ATK. The [[D-Bus]] migration made possible that [[Qt (software)|Qt]] added AT-SPI support. Qt implemented its own bridge to AT-SPI that was released in alpha status in August 2011 for testing purposes<ref>{{cite web|title=Accessibility on Linux|url=http://blog.qt.digia.com/blog/2011/08/23/accessibility-on-linux/|accessdate=2014-04-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140707193743/http://blog.qt.digia.com/blog/2011/08/23/accessibility-on-linux/|archive-date=2014-07-07|url-status=dead}}</ref> and it was integrated into Qt for general use a year later.<ref>{{cite web|title=Qt accessibility APIs|url=http://blog.qt.digia.com/blog/2012/06/18/qt-5-accessibility-apis/|accessdate=2014-04-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140707201604/http://blog.qt.digia.com/blog/2012/06/18/qt-5-accessibility-apis/|archive-date=2014-07-07|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== Development ==

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==See also==

* {{slink|GNOME|GNOME Accessibility}}

== External links ==

* [http://directory.fsf.org/project/at-spi/ at-spi], at the [[Free Software Directory]]

* [http://projects.gnome.org/accessibility/ GNOME Accessibility Project homepage]

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140607010125/https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/en/Accessibility/News/2010/02/08/AT-SPI2_release_0.1.6 ATSPI2] at the [[Linux Foundation]]

== References ==

<references/>

== External links ==

* [http[freesoft://directory.fsf.org/project/atAt-spi/ |at-spi]], at the [[Free Software Directory]]

* [httphttps://projectswiki.gnome.org/accessibility/Accessibility GNOME Accessibility Project homepage]

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140607010125/https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/en/Accessibility/News/2010/02/08/AT-SPI2_release_0.1.6 ATSPI2] at the [[Linux Foundation]]

[[Category:Accessibility API]]