Hi John,
You gave some very good points below, but there is an accessibility
option you maybe haven't considered. If you truly want to make the 7-128
Gamebook accessible to Window-Eyes users, Hal users NVDA, Jaws, System
access, whatever there is a sure fire solution to support all of these
without having to go through a clunky interface like the Java Access
Bridge. If you use the SWT window toolkit instead of Swing you will be
able to make native bindings to the Win32 API which all of the major
screen readers use to gather the on screen information. Since SWT uses
native Win32 window controls all screen readers will recognize and use
your Java application as though it were written in C++ with the Win 32
API. As a Window-Eyes user myself this is how I often have to make my
Java based applications accessible so I can use them with Window-Eyes.
A secondary reason why SWT and JFace are superior has to do with how the
controls and windows are presented to the end user. Since SWT uses
actual Win32 controls your Java application will look and feel like a
true Windows application. it won't have that funky Swing look and feel
that doesn't quite look like other Windows applications. Many developers
and end users have told me SWT applications just look better, more
professional, than those using Swing.
Although, SWT is a superior window toolkit i have no idea how much work
it would take to go back and convert your Gamebook and games over to it.
It is quite different from Swing, and you would basically be rewriting
your graphical front ends from scratch. Definitely not something I would
relish, but might be worth it from an accessibility standpoint.
FYI, there are also Mac and Linux ports of SWT so you can use Cocoa and
GTK+ via SWT as well. This way you are able to use the standard window
toolkit for the specific platform without having to change your
graphical interface in your Java applications. Just recompile and
release for each platform you wish to target.
HTH
John Bannick wrote:
Thomas is correct, IMHO. Having self-voicing in a game ensures its
audio interface is present and works the way you want it to, without
the idiosyncracies of JAWS, etc.
However, a colleague at the Carrol Center for the Blind long ago
convinced us that a game without JAWS won't sell to U.S. blind gamers.
I'm not a marketing person so I don't know if he's right or wrong there.
I'm certainly not qualified to join the which-screen-reader-is-best wars.
But as a sighted programmer, having to code for any screen reader is
excellent discipline. It forces me to have at least a basic grasp of
some of audio display issues and results in a better audio user
interface.
However, coding for a screen reader is a lot of work. In order to make
a user interface that is pleasing to a blind gamer, a
visually-impaired gamer, and a sighted gamer, we often speak stuff
that isn't displayed on the screen. That takes not only extra
plumbing, as Thomas and other coders know well, but sometimes changes
the user interface architecture. And sometimes takes pure magic.
JAWS has a clunky, but workable interface to the Java language we use.
It also has a Braille interface. Something I'd like to pursue some day
with the folks at Helen Keller or SENSE in the UK.
The folks in Fort Wayne haven't yet added a Java interface to Windows
Eyes, though I suspect that I could access their API via Java's C/C++
interface. But that would take a lot of work, add to the complexity of
the code, and increase the probability of bugs.
I think Dark at one time told us that he tried one of our games with
HAL and it seemed to work. Maybe they use the same Java API as JAWS.
However, getting a copy, learning it, and designing and coding for it
have the same issues as for Windows Eyes.
So self-voicing plus JAWS seems the optimal solution to an audio
interface.
That being said, I'm personally not satisfied with Kevin, our voice.
Though as the real Kevin says, "It's free. Don't complain." I know
enough now to make the Free-TTS code work with SAPI. However, that's
probably over a month of analysis, design, and coding; more for
testing and debugging.
I'm pushing management here to include SAPI in our summer work.
But we're a small mainstream game company with small margins. And the
iron jaws of capitalism dictate profit or die.
John Bannick
Chief Technology Officer
7-128 Software
---
Gamers mailing list __ [email protected]
If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to
[email protected].
You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org.
All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected].
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the
list,
please send E-mail to [email protected].
---
Gamers mailing list __ [email protected]
If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected].
You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org.
All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected].
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list,
please send E-mail to [email protected].
