Hi Dark, No, a Java application has to be written from the ground up using SWT instead of Swing. Once an application is writtern using Swing there is nothing an end user can do other than install the Java Access Bridge and pray it works. That's why it is so important that developers be taught best accessibility practices from day one, while they are still in training, because if they write an app and later find its not too speech friendly they are more likely to blow us off because of the work involved to fix their mistakes.
Something else that further compounds the problem with Java is in late 2010 Oricle purchased Sun Micro Systems and now owns the rights to Java, StarOffice, Solaris, and other related software and technologies. Not surprising accessibility has taken a nose dive because Oricle isn't keeping up with the accessibility work Sun was doing, and the Java Access Bridge is now deprecated. You can still find it somewhere on the Sun site, but I got the impression Oricle has no plans to update or continue supporting the Java Access Bridge. This means its more important than ever to get developers to adopt IBM's SWT toolkit because it is accessible and still being maintained. Here is a case in point of exactly what I mean. The Java Access Bridge is a 32-bit application only. As a result if I install Jaws 13 on Windows XP and install a Swing based app like StarOffice it will work pretty decent with Jaws. Now, if I try to install the bridge on a new Windows 7 64-bit PC with Jaws 13 and StarOffice Jaws will not read anything on the screen. StarOffice is totally inaccessible. Its apparent the bridge doesn't work on 64-bit platforms, Oricle is aware of the problem, but in the year or so since Oricle has purchased the Java technology they have not done anything to resolve these accessibility issues. On the other hand there are both 32-bit and 64-bit libraries for SWT. That means I can grab the Eclipse IDE, configure the project to include the sWT packages, and compile binaries for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows and use Jaws, Window-Eyes, NVDA, Hal, System Access, you name it without having to install the stupid bridge and it will be as accessible as any other Windows app. For Swing apps we have to turn to the open source community for answers to our accessibility needs. On Linux there is a new Java Access Bridge called Java-ATK-Wrapper. Java-ATK-Wrapper is a plugin for the new Gnome 3.2 desktop that wraps the Java Runtime and exposes the Swing controls to screen readers like Orca via the Gnome Accessibility Toolkit. Java-ATK-Wrapper isn't perfect, but unlike the Java Access Bridge for Windows at least the Linux developers have set out on their own to address and fix this access issue. I think once the Gnome Accessibility Project fixes some of the bugs and technical issues in Gnome Linux is where the superior access to Java will be in the next few years unless someone writes a custom Java Access Bridge for Windows. Cheers! --- 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://mail.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].
