I saw this article on alt.comp.blind-users regarding java and universal
access. Some on this list might find the following of interest. I think
in the long haul, blind and visually impaired will have access to most
visual digital display information through universal access devices. The
way technology changes occur, who knows exactly what that form will take
in five or ten years.
Steve
---------- Forwarded Message ----------
From: [log in to unmask] (Bill Smith)
Subject: Accessability through Java. ..
Date: 21 Jun 1998 20:06:00 GMT
I found this article on IBM's Special Needs Systems web page at
http://www.ibm.com/java/news/access.html
You may find it interesting...
IBM Collaborates with Sun on Accessibility in the
Java Foundation Classes
Developers from IBM Special Needs Systems and Sun's
Accessibility
group have combined efforts to design and build
next-generation
accessibility into Java
What would it be like to use your computer without being
able to see? How would
you write documents if you didn't have the use of your
hands?
For the past 10 years, the IBM Special Needs Systems
(SNS) group has grappled
with, and provided solutions for, these and other
accessibility issues. The group has
developed solutions ranging from products that read the
screen for people who are
blind to a speech therapy tool for people who have
difficulty hearing or are speech
impaired. In February 1997, developers from IBM SNS and
their counterparts in the
Sun Accessibility group decided to pool their efforts to
design and build
next-generation accessibility into Java.
Accessibility APIs and the Java Foundation Class
Libraries
IBM provided expertise in the architecture of
accessibility components for the Java
Foundations Class Libraries, while Sun designed and coded
the features to be used as
an open-standard for Java application design and Access
Technology Vendor (ATV)
support. The Early Access Java Foundation Class (JFC)
components contain much of
the accessibility information that will be contained in
the final release. The Java
Accessibility APIs (com.sun.accessibility package)
provide a standard programmatic
interface to accessibility information already built into
JFC components.
The Accessibility Problem
In many cases, people who have disabilities cannot use
mainstream applications. This
lack of accessibility is due to application developers
not having tools to enable their
programs. Operating systems have not provided much help
either. Applications either
do not take advantage of accessibility features provided
by operating systems, or
operating systems do not provide the infrastructure for
developers to consistently
build accessibility features into their applications.
This has required ATVs to reverse engineer applications
and operating systems to
make them accessible. Often, considerable time passes
between the launch of an
application or operating system and the debut of an
accessibility aid that supports it.
Many times, a new version of the application or operating
system is available before
the ATV has been able to "fix" the previous version.
Access software, when available, must run on Mac,
Windows, OS/2, DOS, and UNIX
desktop platforms. Yet, these environments are so
different that the ATV must
develop a different version of the same access software
for each platform. And let's
not forget the user who must switch from one environment
to another. Imagine having
to learn a new access program or new access features
along with a new operating
environment.
The Solution Is Java
Java is the ideal environment for solving these
accessibility issues. Its object-oriented
construction gives each object in a program the ability
to store accessibility
information about itself, and -- more importantly -- to
export this information to
ATV software.
Note: Other mainstream operating systems have the ability
to do this, in part.
However, application developers have loopholes that
enable them to fall back on their
legacy development tools and methodologies, either
providing no access information
or hiding it from the accessibility aid.
The new JFC and the Accessibility APIs enable application
programmers -- at the
beginning of the development cycle -- to build in
features for people who have
disabilities. This makes their software ready for
accessibility aids at the time of
release.
The JFC libraries are a boon for ATVs too. Because the
JFC libraries are an effort to
build a robust application environment that is
independent of any operating system,
access software can be written once and re-used on any
platform. Furthermore, Java
enables the same software to be re-used independent of
hardware. This throws open
the doors for access to PowerPC systems, hand-held
devices, digital TV systems,
appliances, Kiosks, paging units, and the electronic
devices of the future.
Why 100% Pure Java Accessibility Is Important
It is crucial that the industry adopt 100% Pure Java. As
long as companies attempt to
develop their own platform-dependent classes,
accessibility will continue to be a
serious problem for people with special needs.
Other companies proposing Java accessibility solutions,
aside from being
platform-specific, suffer from lack of extensibility and
lack of support for accessible
text. JFC provides a standard interface to enable
applications to implement accessible
text components, such as editable text areas. Whereas
other solutions merely provide
the default action, the JFC provides for additional
application control interfaces. This
enables ATVs to harness the full functionality of
application components.
Unlike competing solutions, the JFC addresses
accessibility in two ways by providing
traditional APIs to support conventional access as well
as direct accessibility via the
pluggable look and feel.
The Future of Java Accessibility Development within IBM
IBM wants to move accessibility software into mainstream
customer solutions. To
that end, IBM SNS will continue to work with Sun on
additional component
interfaces to make applications directly accessible. In
addition, IBM SNS is
developing design guidelines for access-enabling
applications and working with IBM
software groups to develop authoring tools for accessible
programs.
The future is even more exciting. Java, with it's
Accessibility APIs, gives developers
the key to the information locked within applications.
The opportunity exists to
"level the playing field" so that all users, regardless
of their special needs, will be able
to access information in ways that makes them most
efficient, proficient, and
effective.
Sun's announcement of the Java Foundation Classes
supporting Accessibility is a
statement to the industry that accessibility now can be
accommodated easily in initial
software design. IBM endorses Sun's 100% Pure Java
accessibility efforts and will
continue to work with Sun to ensure that future versions
of Java have accessibility
features that can be used by application developers to
access-enable their programs
independent of any operating system or hardware.
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