The Blind Get Lift From Java-Based Design (07/29/99, 6:10 p.m. ET) By
Terry Costlow, EE Times Heightened awareness, tight job markets, and
government action are combining to make it simpler for the blind and
visually impaired to work with computers.

Several companies are taking advantage of the portability of the Java
programming language, and its design for accessibility, to let visually
impaired individuals use different types of machines.

Almost from the beginning, Sun Microsystems put hooks into Java for those
designing screen readers and other products that help the disabled
interact with Java-based products. Now, operations as diverse as giant
IBM, tiny Henter-Joyce, in St. Petersburg, Fla., and television's
Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) are using Java to make their
programs usable by those who can't easily read display screens.

"Java is very attractive for accessibility because of the work done by Sun
and IBM," said Tom Wlodkowski, project manager at CPB/WGBH National Center
for Accessible Media (NCAM).

"Java programs will run on Windows and on the Macintosh, which is
important to us because lots of schools run Macs," Wlodkowski said. "If we
do the accessibility work in either of those platforms, it stays on that
platform. With Java, users can go from their classroom, where they work on
a Mac, and go home and continue working on Windows."

NCAM is also working on techniques that will make it easier forprogrammers
to integrate multimedia CDs with screen readers. Companies that make these
readers, which use voice synthesis to tell blind operators what's being
displayed, are attracted to Java for the same reasons as those with other
programs.

"Java applets are very extensively used in Web developments," said Andres
Gonzalez, software developer at Henter-Joyce. Like roughly half of the 60
employees there, Gonzalez is blind. "We definitely want to provide access
to Web pages," he said. "The number of stand-alone Java applications is
also growing rapidly. There are a certain number of large corporations
that are using custom Java applications, and they have blind employees who
need to work with them."

Screen readers can be used with Braille products, even replacing them in
some instances. Like Henter-Joyce, many companies will continue to support
Braille, providing a piece of hardware that sits near the keyboard and
pops up pins that create Braille characters as the user types.

Companies are starting to recognize blind and visually impaired people are
a way to find skilled workers in a tight job market. But many vendors say
their efforts are being dwarfed by quick action within government agencies
driven by Section 508 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act, which was
reissued last fall. The act requires federal agencies buying electronic
products to purchase gear that can be accessed by anyone.

Efforts in these various areas are improving the goal of making nearly all
software accessible to anyone who wants it. The National Science
Foundation is funding an effort to make data on CDs easier to link to
screen readers and other products.

Today's multimedia products, said NCAM's Wlodkowski "are very rich
graphically, but screen readers can't work with graphics done with bit
maps." The National Science Foundation wanted guidelines, he said, that
let software developers equally include sighted and blind people. "Our
project makes it relatively easy to wire in access."

WGBH-TV, a leading public-broadcasting station, has been in the vanguard
on accessibility issues for decades. In the early '70s, engineers at the
Boston station were pioneers in closed captioning, using the second audio
program in a novel way. They also made it possible to insert descriptions
of the action during the natural pauses in dialogue. In 1993, NCAM was
formed to formalize such efforts.




While developing programs for the blind has some unique challenges, there
are many similarities in the way that work progresses. As with most
projects, deadlines and adrenaline often combine to help keep the
developers revved.

"When we were getting ready to show our first demonstration of Jaws for
Windows [screen-reader software] with Java, it wasn't reading well based
on information it was getting from the accessibility bridge," Gonzalez
said. "Our people were headed to the conference and we were still here
working on fixes. It was just at the last minute, the night before the
demo, that we came up with a solution."

Many companies that specialize in designing for the handicapped like Java
because it has an accessibility bridge and other features that make it
easy to work with. Input is a big factor.

"In Java, a lot of work has already been done for the keyboard commands,"
Wlodkowski said. "They've also worked with the related images on the
screen."

Though developers note that Microsoft has also done much in this arena,
Java is currently hot. Henter-Joyce said it plans to roll its Java-based
technology out shortly, and IBM is beginning to ship a screen reader based
around Java. Sun is making a real effort to help shorten time-to-market.

"Fortunately, Sun has been open and we've been able to get in on the
ground floor so they can take our needs into account," said Wilson Craig,
marketing manager at Henter-Joyce. "Sun has been proactive in
accessibility, doing things like providing us access to their bridge. They
are very receptive to providing us with any information they have."

Nor is the Sun team that added accessibility to Java resting on its
laurels. Members are tweaking other versions of Java to match
accessibility features to specific markets. They're also working with
Jini, again getting in on the ground floor with the high-level technology
unveiled late last year.

"We initially focused on what accessibility ought to be with the desktop
environment, but Java is much more than the desktop, it includes set-top
boxes, smart phones, and other products," said Earl Johnson, project
manager at Sun in Mountain View, Calif. "Now we're extending Jini, which
lets people carry their accessibility profile. Say you're at the
Smithsonian, Jini lets a person who can't see enjoy the exhibit."


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