644485 - Add an Accessibility Tab to Firefox Options

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Disability Access, defect)

Description

[Ken Saunders]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.0; rv:2.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.0; rv:2.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0

Mozilla has a great record of being accessibility advocates for persons with disabilities. Through the Mozilla Foundation providing grants for accessibility related projects and organizations, to creating and implementing default tools and features that allows users to customize Firefox to suit their needs, they've lead the way in browser accessibility.

I propose that a dedicated Accessibility tab be added to the Firefox Options manger to include the three options that it currently does, but also add Zoom options (Zoom Text Only, Full Page Zoom), and the Fonts & Colors options as well. 
An added bonus would be to provide a link to Accessibility on SUMO.

What inspired me to file this bug was noticing that the Zoom menu isn't accessible at all in Firefox 4 if the menu bar is hidden. I believe that a) users should be able to access it more easily as some prefer to use the zoom text only option. b) Placing it in Options would be appropriate as most users will only choose to change their zoom preferences once, or, occasionally (add-ons are available to change it on the fly). c) It's ironic that the accessibility options are tucked away in the last tab of the options manger under advanced. Why is it under Advanced when accessibility needs are basic and essential ones for many people.

I believe that Mozilla should take the lead here and provide a dedicated Accessibility tab that others would more than likely feel compelled to follow.

Disabled users are a minority.  I'm well aware of this. I spend a lot of time working on a site dedicated to them and the stats for the site are not astronomical because of that fact but it is still my priority. I have had a lot of trouble over the past 5+ years finding developers to create add-ons for persons with different abilities because they feel that it isn't worth the time to dedicate all that time and effort to such a small demographic (I've heard just that). And I have a disability myself so I know. 

I'm aware of the amount of time and work that would be involved, and again, for such a small number of users, but I'm asking for Mozilla to once again lead the way in accessibility with this small gesture that will go a long way.

Keep these things in mind.
Accessibility options are useful and appealing to,
Users with disabilities
Persons with visual impairments and without the best visual acuity (not necessarily disabled) including the massive amount of aging baby boomers
Small screen device users
Ken Saunders ( :) )

I've never been successful with getting an Accessibility category on AMO, but I'm hopeful that this can now be done.

Reproducible: Always

Comment 1

[alexander :surkov (:asurkov)]

David, can you drive this bug?

Comment 2

[David Weir (satdav)]

Hi their would this be possible to happen

Comment 3

[alexander :surkov (:asurkov)]

Can we cc UI people to get feedback/opinion?

Comment 4

[David Weir (satdav)]

it would be good for this to happen i will post it about for ux feedback

Comment 5

[David Weir (satdav)]

Ken would you like this still added as i have flaged it to the UI team

Comment 6

[Ken Saunders]

(In reply to David Weir (satdav) from comment #5)
> Ken would you like this still added as i have flaged it to the UI team

Well yes, I would love to see it, and I'd love for Firefox to be the first, but I understand the great amount of time, effort, and work that would be involved in doing this. Many things would have to be re-written and moved around and there are other priorities right now, and a lot focus and resources are on Firefox OS.

I'm an amateur add-on developer and tried creating an add-on a while ago that would add an accessibility tab to the preferences window and it can be done, but I haven't worked on it for a long time, I haven't tried it with in-content preferences, and, I'd need to find an add-on developer that could help to make it all work.

At this point, getting an add-on made would be nice and it be a proof of concept for the Firefox team to see.

I'll start looking into that option for now.