TechWeb News

March 9, 1999

LENGTH: 1801 words

HEADLINE: Activists Open Java To The Disabled

BYLINE: Robert Bellinger, 1

 BODY:
   When the Java programming language was still in its infancy in 1996, Sun
Microsystems engineer Earl Johnson understood that it was time to make noise
about assuring Java's accessible to persons with disabilities.

   Johnson was afraid that Java could go the route of the early versions of
Windows, which required users, for instance, to hold down three keys at once
to

execute a command -- a difficult maneuver for typical users, but nearly
impossible for someone with motor impairments. It was only in Version 3.1,
after
advocacy groups for the disabled spoke up, that accessibility features were
added to Windows.



   By getting involved in the project early, Johnson's team able to provide
alternative techniques for user to communicate with their Java-based
systems,
as
well as make it easier and less costly for outsiders to add special
features.

   Aware of the lag time between design and implementation and -- as a
 quadriplegic  who uses a wheelchair -- sensitive to the issue of
accessibility,
Johnson appointed himself to speak up to his employer, the developer of
Java.

   "I realized we had a clean slate with Java." he said. It was a perfect
opportunity to carry out one of the most pressing points that the Trace
Research
Center, in Madison, Wis., makes in arguing for universal design: that
engineers

and product planners should build in accessibility features early in a
design,
instead of bolting them on afterwards, thus saving money and time.

   "If we ship a product that has no plan for being accessible, we expose
ourselves to some sort of action,"-- Earl JohnsonSun

   Johnson's activism in 1996-97 produced both typical and atypical results:
Typical, in that if you make a ruckus, expect to be appointed to do
something
about it -- Johnson was made project manager of a core team at Sun that
works
with engineers internally to drive accessibility issues.



   But Johnson's involvement was atypical in that Sun was generally
receptive
to
the idea of embedding accessibility into Java. Executives were aware of the
consequences of ignoring the disabled community.

   "If we ship a product that has no plan for being accessible, we expose
ourselves to some sort of action," Johnson said. "The writing was on the
wall."


   Not only do you risk losing consumers in the private marketplace; you
possibly lose big sales in the federal realm, where the government is
increasingly insisting on accessible products and services for its agencies.
If

Sun and its developers wanted to sell Java products to Washington, D.C.,
they
would have to comply with stiffer regulations.

   In March 1996, Johnson and others contacted the Trace Center, a
clearinghouse
for universal design that provides companies with guidance in designing
accessible products. "That was the base point for us," Johnson said. Then in
February 1997, a three-day "summit meeting" was held with Java licensees
Microsoft, IBM, Adobe, and others regarding how the Java API should be
defined
in terms of accessibility.

   An API is the programming interface that defines how the Java Foundation
Classes and assistive technologies interface. JFC is a comprehensive set of
software components and services that makes it easier for developers to
create
Internet, intranet, and desktop applications.

   By March 1997, Sun was able to demonstrate accessible technology at the
Technologies and Persons with Disabilities Conference in Los Angeles.

   Since then, Sun has been polishing specifications, offering public
reviews
of
the Java accessibility features and continuing to develop the API. Last
August,

Sun shipped the Accessibility API to customers, and Johnson said it was
"received very well by the broad disability community." The API is part of
the
GUIs known as Swing, whose components already implement features such as
keyboard navigation for people who cannot use a mouse.

   Accessibility, Johnson acknowledged, has become a
motherhood-and-apple-pie
issue. Few would raise objections to the idea of creating designs that
everyone

can use.

   But at Sun, as elsewhere, the question arose of "where will the resources
come from?" Many companies have taken a "bolt-on approach" to accessibility,
said Johnson. They forge ahead with a product, then leave it up to third
parties
to figure out how to tweak APIs to develop a screen reader for the blind or
an
input device for those with impaired mobility. They'll provide an extra port
or two for plug-in devices.

   The downside to that approach is cost -- for developers, for employers
who
need to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and for end users.
Retrofitting invariably costs more than design-ins.

   Java gave disability advocates a golden opportunity to devise APIs that
offer
alternatives from the get-go. The API already lets users choose how they
want
their data delivered -- via audio, screen, or screen reader -- and how they
want
to input that data: voice recognition, adaptive keyboards, various pointer
devices. In a nutshell, Java didn't require developers to spend hours
figuring
out workarounds -- it's there for the asking.

   Today, Sun continues to sift through feedback from users and customers to
make it better. Work is under way to improve presentation of documents,
tables,

and graphics. That, Johnson considers an easy enough task. "The trick is
getting
developers to take the extra step to make sure that application actually is
accessible."

   Sun has made it simpler for third parties to, for example, run
applications
without a mouse, but it can't force them to comply.



   So the accessibility team has assumed the burden of promoting
accessibility
both internally and externally. Inside Sun, "we support engineers and train
them." Outside, "we've called in developers to have their questions
answered.

   "We also have to work with development-tool manufacturers," Johnson said.

   He said he considers the three-year process of incorporating
accessibility
into Java pretty good considering that the first Windows package emerged in
the

late '80s, and didn't offer accessibility features until six or seven years
later.

   "It's surprising to me that there is assistive technology at all now,"
Johnson said, referring to IBM's Java Screen Reader, which will be formally
introduced next week at the Technology and Persons with Disabilities
Conference

in Los Angeles. Judging from the plethora of Windows assistive technology
products that sprung up once Microsoft opened up Windows to accessibility,
Java

should soon inspire a new class of accessible products that will work on a
variety of platforms, use the Internet through Sun's new Jini
distributed-computing interface, and make use of accessibility "bridges" to
Windows.

   The Accessibility Team has good reason to push ahead: Two members --
Johnson

and Deena Shumila, who is blind -- know first hand the obstacles that a
closed
programming environment can create.

   Yet, what everyone is learning is that accessible design isn't restricted
to

the disabled. If you've ever used a telephone volume control on a phone in a
noisy airport -- or rolled your bicycle onto a sidewalk via a curbcut or
taken
a
shopping cart up a ramp to the supermarket door -- you've taken advantage of
accessible, or universal, design.

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