SWT is indeed more accessible. I think the only parts of Libre Office that are in Java are those tied to the database. Most of the code is in c and c++, I heard. Btw, QT is somewhat supported. I wouldn't call it stellar but it's not impossible to navigate witha jaws cursor. (Mouse simulator) Idle, for instance, is in QT. I dn't see them rewriting the code to use swt classes though. Besides, I think this creates issues in Gnome since swt is less accessible there than swing.
alex M On 12/7/10, Octavian Rasnita <[email protected]> wrote: > From: "Christophe Strobbe" <[email protected]> >> Hi Alex, >> >> At 02:25 7/12/2010, Alex Midence wrote: >>>Well, my thinking is and always will be that Libre Office is better >>>off making itself accessible no matter what screen reader is used. >> >> >> That is why LibreOffice (like OpenOffice.org) needs to support >> accessibility APIs, keyboard access, desktop themes, etcetera. For a >> screen reader to work with an application, the application needs to >> implement the accessibility API (for example the Java Accessibility >> API, which is not tied to a specific operating system), and the >> screen reader needs to support that API. As far as I know, screen >> readers on Windows have generally weak support for the Java Accessibility >> API. > > > True, although the screen readers for Windows have a weak support for SWING > API. The support for SWT is much better. > > But the screen readers for Windows have a non-existent support for other > GUIs like Tk, GTK, QT... > > >> (Note: Java accessibility on Windows requires the Java Access Bridge. >> Oracle is working on a new version of this bridge that will be part >> of the Java Runtime Environment instead of a separate download.) > > This will be great, but hopefully the screen readers manufacturers will also > offer a better support for SWING. > > JAWS for Windows offer some support for Java Access Bridge as it is now, but > only in a virtual buffer, so the apps are seen like web pages. > > SWING is slower than SWT anyway, and that weak support offered by JAWS makes > the apps much less responsive, but what's the most important for blind > programmers is that it is very hard if impossible to make the design of the > GUI, because in the SWING apps, JAWS doesn't offer that "JAWS cursor" for > allowing us to "see" the position of each window control on the screen. > > I heard that Window Eyes started to offer a better support for SWING than > JAWS but I haven't tested it. > > By the way, what interface is LibreOffice using? I've tested OpenOffice and > it was pretty accessible although I don't remember if I had Java Access > Bridge installed. Does it use something else than SWING? > > Thanks. > > Octavian > > > -- > E-mail to [email protected] for instructions on how to > unsubscribe > List archives are available at > http://www.libreoffice.org/lists/accessibility/ > All messages you send to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be > deleted > -- E-mail to [email protected] for instructions on how to unsubscribe List archives are available at http://www.libreoffice.org/lists/accessibility/ All messages you send to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
