>X-From_: [log in to unmask] Fri Mar 26 19:02:44 1999
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>Date:         Fri, 26 Mar 1999 10:53:51 -0800
>Reply-To: Java Accessibility interest mailing list
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>From: Peter Korn <[log in to unmask]>
>Organization: Sun Microsystems
>Subject:      CSUN trip report: screen readers, ATMs, and more!
>Comments: To: [log in to unmask]
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>Greetings,
>
>Last week was the annual CSUN Conference on Technology and Persons with
>Disabilities.  Accessibility to the Java platform was one of the themes of
>the conference, and there were a number of conference sessions devoted to the
>topic, as well as a 3 hour evening session on Java Accessibility hosted by
>Sun Microsystems.  Access to Java applications was demonstrated at the show
>by IBM, Henter-Joyce, Syntha-Voice, and Sun.  In addition, Sun showed a few
>new technologies which showed the benefits of Java Accessibility outside of
>the traditional desktop realm.
>
>
>The first Java Accessibility presentation was by Earl Johnson of the Sun
>Accessibility team, titled "A Primer on the Java Platform and Java
>Accessibility" on Wednesday afternoon.  In this presentation, Earl gave a
>broad overview of the history of Sun's development of Java technologies and
>the Java Accessibility effort.  The presentation paper can be found at:
>http://www.dinf.org/csun_99/session0193.html
>
>The next presentation was from Richard Schwerdtfeger and the IBM Special
>Needs Systems group, titled "IBM's Self Voicing Kit Technology for Java:
>IBM's Solution to Bring Cross-Platform Accessibility to Mainstream Computing"
>on Thursday morning.  This presentation, expanded to two hours, included
>detailed information on the architecture of the IBM Self Voicing Kit
>technology for the Java platform, showing it's uses both as a screen reader,
>as well as a tool for evaluating the accessibility of a given Java
>application.  The presentation paper can be found at:
>http://www.dinf.org/csun_99/session0098.html
>
>In addition to the presentations by IBM employees, guests from CAST, the
>National Security Administration (NSA), CPB/WGBH/CAM, and Sun Microsystems
>gave demonstrations at this session.  CAST demonstrated Bobby
>(http://www.cast.org/bobby), the web page accessibility test tool developed
>for the Java platform and accessible because of its support of the Java
>Accessibility API.  The NSA talked about how they are using the IBM SVK with
>Solaris systems to get access to applications developed in the Java language
>deployed within their organization.  CPB/WGBH/CAM showed an application
>developed as part of their National Science Foundation-funded project on
>CD-ROM Access for Blind and Visually Impaired students -> an application for
>teaching how photosynthesis works which has a "no compromises" complex
>graphical interface, totally accessible through the IBM SVK (for more
>information, see their project web site at:
>http://www.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/ncam/cdrom/).  Finally, Sun Microsystems
>demonstrated access to a shareware e-mail client developed for the Java
>Platform, ICEMail (http://www.ice.com/java/icemail), sending e-mail between a
>Solaris workstation and a Linux system, both running the Java 2 platform, and
>both talking via the IBM SVK.
>
>
>On Friday evening, Sun gave a 3 hour presentation outside of the normal
>conference agenda.  At this presentation, Sun devoted the bulk of the time to
>showcasing accessible Java applications through various different assistive
>technologies which support the Java Accessibility API.  At the end of the
>evening, Sun also showed applications for Java Accessibility outside the
>traditional confines of "desktop computing": an accessible ATM machine and
>environmental control systems.
>
>The first product demonstration of the evening came from Henter-Joyce, which
>showed an unreleased version of their screen reader, JFW, working with the
>Bobby web page checker Java application.  Bobby was launched just like a
>typical Windows application -> from the Start menu where it had been
>installed.  This invoked a Java virtual machine into which Bobby was loaded.
>Through a not-yet-released version of the Sun Access Bridge to Native Code
>technology (http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/jaccess-1.2/doc/bridge.html),
>JFW then read the contents of the Bobby application.  With JFW, Bobby behaved
>just like an accessible Windows application.  Tabbing through dialogs,
>manipulating menus, and editing text in the various text fields of Bobby
>worked as a JFW would expect from a typical Windows application.  A press
>release from Henter-Joyce on their Java Accessibility support can be found
>at:  http://www.hj.com/NewsCommentary/JavaCSUN.html
>
>The second product demonstration of the evening came from Syntha-Voice, which
>showed an unreleased version of their screen reader, WindowBridge, working
>with the sample Swing application Stylepad.  Stylepad is a text editor which
>supports rich text attributes and graphics.  Through a not-yet-released
>version of the Sun Access Bridge, WindowBridge provided access to the
>Stylepad application and the text document contained within it.  Showing off
>one of the key features of the Java Accessibility API, WindowBridge spoke the
>attributes of the text contained within the Stylepad document, stating when
>the text was underlined or in boldface, what the font name and size were, and
>the red, green, and blue components of the color used for text that wasn't
>black pixels on a white background.  When someone from the audience asked how
>long it took Syntha-Voice to develop the level of support for the Java
>platform that was being demonstrated, they answered that it took them less
>than a week.  More information about WindowBridge can be found at:
>http://www.synthavoice.on.ca/
>
>The third product demonstration of the evening came from IBM, which showed
>their Self Voicing Kit (http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/svk) in
>conjunction with BluePages, an internal IBM application used for looking up
>fellow employees.  IBM demonstrated the power and flexibility of their
>technology, which is written in the Java language and therefore platform
>independent.
>
>The next set of folks were from the NSA, echoing their earlier presentations
>as part of the IBM session.  Gary Day and Chris Murphy talked about how easy
>it was to make the Java applications they were developing for the NSA
>accessible.  They recounted how rapidly development went for them in the Java
>platform, and how by simply following a few simple guidelines they wound up
>with a very accessible set of applications that were to be deployed through
>the NSA.
>
>After the NSA came Madeleine Rothberg and Tom Wlodkowski from CPB/WGBH/NCAM,
>echoing their earlier presentations as part of the IBM session.  They showed
>their photosynthesis teaching demonstration application in conjunction with
>the IBM SVK.  One of the most powerful demonstrations of the high quality of
>the access provided by this combination was at the screen showing a two
>dimensional graph of the rate of production of oxygen by the plant as the
>user varied the amount of light and other inputs.  As the user changed the
>inputs, the rate of oxygen production changed visibly on the graph, and
>simultaneously the IBM SVK spoke the new rate in a different voice.
>
>The remainder of the Friday evening presentation was given by employees from
>Sun Microsystems.  Lynn Monstanto showed JavaWorkShop
>(http://www.sun.com/workshop/java/), a development environment for Java
>applications, itself written entirely in the Java language.  Lynn, formerly a
>member of the JavaWorkShop development team, showed how he used the Java
>Accessibility Utilities test tools to ensure that JavaWorkShop would be
>accessible, explaining how the Java Accessibility API works.
>
>Peter Korn and Dena Shumila then demonstrated again for the evening audience
>access to ICEMail with speech via the IBM SVK from both Solaris and Linux
>systems.  Underscoring why ICEMail, an application simply downloaded off of
>the Internet at the beginning of the show, worked so well with the IBM SVK,
>Sun read from some of the six published books on the Java Foundation Classes
>and Java 2 platform which discuss Java Accessibility and in many cases give
>detailed, step-by-step instructions to Java developers on how to support
>Accessibility and Assistive Technologies in their Java applications.
>
>The last two demonstrations of the evening showed applications of Java
>Accessibility outside of the traditional desktop environment.  The first of
>these was a prototype Accessible ATM machine.  Marney Beard of Sun
>demonstrated first how the ATM machine prototype works for a typical
>mainstream user.  It behaved just like one would expect an ATM to behave,
>asking her for her PIN code, giving her access to her accounts, and allowing
>her to make deposits and retrieve cash.  Then Dena Shumila used the ATM.
>This time, however, the ATM read from her JavaRing (in practice this would be
>a plastic card) information specifying that she wanted the ATM to use a
>low-vision Look & Feel, along with a particular screen reader, as part of her
>ATM interaction.  The ATM then reconfigured itself, changing to a high
>contrast screen with large text, loading in a screen reader, and speaking to
>her.  It then asked her for her PIN, which she entered, and then it told her
>about her accounts and she navigated through the ATM screens to retrieve some
>cash.  Dena and Marney then explained how the Accessible ATM prototype works,
>that it is based on the Java 2 platform, and that while it is a prototype,
>the technologies inside it could be used and deployed by financial
>institutions.  For more information about the Accessible ATM prototype, see
>the presentation at: http://www.sun.com/access/presentations/AATM/ or the
>white paper at: http://www.sun.com/access/wp-aatm/
>
>In the final demonstration of the evening, Peter Korn of Sun Microsystems
>talked about Sun's new Jini technology (http://www.sun.com/jini), and
>implications for pairing Jini with the Java Accessibility work Sun is doing.
>Peter demonstrated a Java application which controlled a lamp and a clock
>radio.  This application used the Java Accessibility API, and so would be
>accessible to all of the screen readers which were demoed earlier in the
>evening.  Peter stated that the hope of the Sun Accessibility team is that in
>the future, Jini-enabled devices such as elevators and stereo systems and
>microwave ovens would provide user-interfaces for the Java platform which
>used the Java Accessibility API and thereby worked with assistive
>technologies.  A user in a wheelchair could then roll up to an elevator, have
>the computer on the wheelchair discover the Jini-enabled elevator and then be
>able to manipulate the buttons of the elevator directly from the Java
>application downloaded automatically to the wheelchair.
>
>
>On Saturday morning Madeleine Rothberg and Tom Wlodkowski gave a detailed
>hour long presentation titled "Adapting Multimedia Software For Blind
>Students: Choices And Challenges."  This presentation went into more depth on
>the Photosynthesis teaching application they demonstrated earlier in the
>conference, and discussed how easy it was for them develop the rich graphical
>interface that was at the same time very accessible, using the Java
>Foundation Classes and their built-in support for the Java Accessibility
>API.  The presentation paper can be found at:
>http://www.dinf.org/csun_99/session0156.html
>
>
>Later Saturday morning, Gary Day and Christopher Murphy gave a presentation
>titled "Information Technology Accommodation", in which they discussed how
>the National Security Agency was using applications developed for the Java
>platform on their thousands of Sun Solaris systems, accessible to their blind
>employees.  The presentation paper can be found at:
>http://www.dinf.org/csun_99/session0191.html
>
>
>In addition to the presentations at CSUN, several companies were
>demonstrating their work with Java Accessibility at the show.  IBM and
>Henter-Joyce were demonstrating access to Java applications in their suites
>on the 17th floor of the hotel, and Sun was showing access to Solaris and
>Linux in their suite, as well as showing their Accessible ATM prototype and
>giving away JavaRings.
>
>
>Also available for the CSUN show were two articles on the Sun web site
>discussing Java Accessibility.  In the front-page article titled "The Java
>Accessibility API Hits the Road"
>(http://java.sun.com/features/1999/03/access.html), Steve Malone introduces
>the notion of Accessibility and discusses how the Java Accessibility API and
>the Java platform combine to support people with disabilities.  Headlining
>The Swing Connection, a web site dedicated to the Java Foundation Classes,
>Mark Andrews describes how programmers should use the Java Accessibility API
>to make their applications accessible in the article titled "Accessibility
>and the Swing Set: How Swing Can Help You Create Accessible Apps"
>http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/special_report/accessibility/accessibi
lity.html
>
>Finally, Sun's documentation team had just released in time for CSUN a new
>edition of The Java Tutorial, a definitive tutorial on how to develop for the
>Java platform (http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/).  Throughout the
>tutorial's coverage of the Java Foundation Classes are source code examples
>which show how to use the Java Accessibility API.  In addition, a special
>section titled "How to Support Assistive Technologies"
>(http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/misc/access.html) shows
>step-by-step how to ensure that your Java application supports assistive
>technologies.
>
>
>
>All in all, it was quite a conference!
>
>
>
>Peter Korn
>Assistive Technology Architect,
>Sun Microsystems
>
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