Sender: Java Accessibility interest mailing list

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From: Peter Korn <peter.korn@SUN.COM

Organization: Sun Microsystems

Subject: CSUN trip report: screen readers, ATMs, and more!

Comments: To: JA-PR@basso.eng.sun.com

To: JAVA-ACCESS@JAVA.SUN.COM

Greetings,

Last week was the annual CSUN Conference on Technology and Persons with

Disabilities. Accessibility to the Java platform was one of the themes of

the conference, and there were a number of conference sessions devoted to the

topic, as well as a 3 hour evening session on Java Accessibility hosted by

Sun Microsystems. Access to Java applications was demonstrated at the show

by IBM, Henter-Joyce, Syntha-Voice, and Sun. In addition, Sun showed a few

new technologies which showed the benefits of Java Accessibility outside of

the traditional desktop realm.

The first Java Accessibility presentation was by Earl Johnson of the Sun

Accessibility team, titled "A Primer on the Java Platform and Java

Accessibility" on Wednesday afternoon. In this presentation, Earl gave a

broad overview of the history of Sun's development of Java technologies and

the Java Accessibility effort. The presentation paper can be found at:

The next presentation was from Richard Schwerdtfeger and the IBM Special

Needs Systems group, titled "IBM's Self Voicing Kit Technology for Java:

IBM's Solution to Bring Cross-Platform Accessibility to Mainstream Computing"

on Thursday morning. This presentation, expanded to two hours, included

detailed information on the architecture of the IBM Self Voicing Kit

technology for the Java platform, showing it's uses both as a screen reader,

as well as a tool for evaluating the accessibility of a given Java

application. The presentation paper can be found at:

In addition to the presentations by IBM employees, guests from CAST, the

National Security Administration (NSA), CPB/WGBH/CAM, and Sun Microsystems

gave demonstrations at this session. CAST demonstrated Bobby

for the Java platform and accessible because of its support of the Java

Accessibility API. The NSA talked about how they are using the IBM SVK with

Solaris systems to get access to applications developed in the Java language

deployed within their organization. CPB/WGBH/CAM showed an application

developed as part of their National Science Foundation-funded project on

CD-ROM Access for Blind and Visually Impaired students - an application for

teaching how photosynthesis works which has a "no compromises" complex

graphical interface, totally accessible through the IBM SVK (for more

information, see their project web site at:

demonstrated access to a shareware e-mail client developed for the Java

Solaris workstation and a Linux system, both running the Java 2 platform, and

both talking via the IBM SVK.

On Friday evening, Sun gave a 3 hour presentation outside of the normal

conference agenda. At this presentation, Sun devoted the bulk of the time to

showcasing accessible Java applications through various different assistive

technologies which support the Java Accessibility API. At the end of the

evening, Sun also showed applications for Java Accessibility outside the

traditional confines of "desktop computing": an accessible ATM machine and

environmental control systems.

The first product demonstration of the evening came from Henter-Joyce, which

showed an unreleased version of their screen reader, JFW, working with the

Bobby web page checker Java application. Bobby was launched just like a

typical Windows application - from the Start menu where it had been

installed. This invoked a Java virtual machine into which Bobby was loaded.

Through a not-yet-released version of the Sun Access Bridge to Native Code

JFW then read the contents of the Bobby application. With JFW, Bobby behaved

just like an accessible Windows application. Tabbing through dialogs,

manipulating menus, and editing text in the various text fields of Bobby

worked as a JFW would expect from a typical Windows application. A press

release from Henter-Joyce on their Java Accessibility support can be found

The second product demonstration of the evening came from Syntha-Voice, which

showed an unreleased version of their screen reader, WindowBridge, working

with the sample Swing application Stylepad. Stylepad is a text editor which

supports rich text attributes and graphics. Through a not-yet-released

version of the Sun Access Bridge, WindowBridge provided access to the

Stylepad application and the text document contained within it. Showing off

one of the key features of the Java Accessibility API, WindowBridge spoke the

attributes of the text contained within the Stylepad document, stating when

the text was underlined or in boldface, what the font name and size were, and

the red, green, and blue components of the color used for text that wasn't

black pixels on a white background. When someone from the audience asked how

long it took Syntha-Voice to develop the level of support for the Java

platform that was being demonstrated, they answered that it took them less

than a week. More information about WindowBridge can be found at:

conjunction with BluePages, an internal IBM application used for looking up

fellow employees. IBM demonstrated the power and flexibility of their

technology, which is written in the Java language and therefore platform

independent.

The next set of folks were from the NSA, echoing their earlier presentations

as part of the IBM session. Gary Day and Chris Murphy talked about how easy

it was to make the Java applications they were developing for the NSA

accessible. They recounted how rapidly development went for them in the Java

platform, and how by simply following a few simple guidelines they wound up

with a very accessible set of applications that were to be deployed through

the NSA.

After the NSA came Madeleine Rothberg and Tom Wlodkowski from CPB/WGBH/NCAM,

echoing their earlier presentations as part of the IBM session. They showed

their photosynthesis teaching demonstration application in conjunction with

the IBM SVK. One of the most powerful demonstrations of the high quality of

the access provided by this combination was at the screen showing a two

dimensional graph of the rate of production of oxygen by the plant as the

user varied the amount of light and other inputs. As the user changed the

inputs, the rate of oxygen production changed visibly on the graph, and

simultaneously the IBM SVK spoke the new rate in a different voice.

The remainder of the Friday evening presentation was given by employees from

Sun Microsystems. Lynn Monstanto showed JavaWorkShop

applications, itself written entirely in the Java language. Lynn, formerly a

member of the JavaWorkShop development team, showed how he used the Java

Accessibility Utilities test tools to ensure that JavaWorkShop would be

accessible, explaining how the Java Accessibility API works.

Peter Korn and Dena Shumila then demonstrated again for the evening audience

access to ICEMail with speech via the IBM SVK from both Solaris and Linux

systems. Underscoring why ICEMail, an application simply downloaded off of

the Internet at the beginning of the show, worked so well with the IBM SVK,

Sun read from some of the six published books on the Java Foundation Classes

and Java 2 platform which discuss Java Accessibility and in many cases give

detailed, step-by-step instructions to Java developers on how to support

Accessibility and Assistive Technologies in their Java applications.

The last two demonstrations of the evening showed applications of Java

Accessibility outside of the traditional desktop environment. The first of

these was a prototype Accessible ATM machine. Marney Beard of Sun

demonstrated first how the ATM machine prototype works for a typical

mainstream user. It behaved just like one would expect an ATM to behave,

asking her for her PIN code, giving her access to her accounts, and allowing

her to make deposits and retrieve cash. Then Dena Shumila used the ATM.

This time, however, the ATM read from her JavaRing (in practice this would be

a plastic card) information specifying that she wanted the ATM to use a

low-vision Look & Feel, along with a particular screen reader, as part of her

ATM interaction. The ATM then reconfigured itself, changing to a high

contrast screen with large text, loading in a screen reader, and speaking to

her. It then asked her for her PIN, which she entered, and then it told her

about her accounts and she navigated through the ATM screens to retrieve some

cash. Dena and Marney then explained how the Accessible ATM prototype works,

that it is based on the Java 2 platform, and that while it is a prototype,

the technologies inside it could be used and deployed by financial

institutions. For more information about the Accessible ATM prototype, see

In the final demonstration of the evening, Peter Korn of Sun Microsystems

implications for pairing Jini with the Java Accessibility work Sun is doing.

Peter demonstrated a Java application which controlled a lamp and a clock

radio. This application used the Java Accessibility API, and so would be

accessible to all of the screen readers which were demoed earlier in the

evening. Peter stated that the hope of the Sun Accessibility team is that in

the future, Jini-enabled devices such as elevators and stereo systems and

microwave ovens would provide user-interfaces for the Java platform which

used the Java Accessibility API and thereby worked with assistive

technologies. A user in a wheelchair could then roll up to an elevator, have

the computer on the wheelchair discover the Jini-enabled elevator and then be

able to manipulate the buttons of the elevator directly from the Java

application downloaded automatically to the wheelchair.

On Saturday morning Madeleine Rothberg and Tom Wlodkowski gave a detailed

hour long presentation titled "Adapting Multimedia Software For Blind

Students: Choices And Challenges." This presentation went into more depth on

the Photosynthesis teaching application they demonstrated earlier in the

conference, and discussed how easy it was for them develop the rich graphical

interface that was at the same time very accessible, using the Java

Foundation Classes and their built-in support for the Java Accessibility

API. The presentation paper can be found at:

Later Saturday morning, Gary Day and Christopher Murphy gave a presentation

titled "Information Technology Accommodation", in which they discussed how

the National Security Agency was using applications developed for the Java

platform on their thousands of Sun Solaris systems, accessible to their blind

employees. The presentation paper can be found at:

In addition to the presentations at CSUN, several companies were

demonstrating their work with Java Accessibility at the show. IBM and

Henter-Joyce were demonstrating access to Java applications in their suites

on the 17th floor of the hotel, and Sun was showing access to Solaris and

Linux in their suite, as well as showing their Accessible ATM prototype and

giving away JavaRings.

Also available for the CSUN show were two articles on the Sun web site

discussing Java Accessibility. In the front-page article titled "The Java

Accessibility API Hits the Road"

the notion of Accessibility and discusses how the Java Accessibility API and

the Java platform combine to support people with disabilities. Headlining

The Swing Connection, a web site dedicated to the Java Foundation Classes,

Mark Andrews describes how programmers should use the Java Accessibility API

to make their applications accessible in the article titled "Accessibility

and the Swing Set: How Swing Can Help You Create Accessible Apps"

edition of The Java Tutorial, a definitive tutorial on how to develop for the

tutorial's coverage of the Java Foundation Classes are source code examples

which show how to use the Java Accessibility API. In addition, a special

section titled "How to Support Assistive Technologies"

step-by-step how to ensure that your Java application supports assistive

technologies.

All in all, it was quite a conference!

Peter Korn

Assistive Technology Architect,

Sun Microsystems

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