Bridging the Gap: Java(TM) Access Bridge Links Windows-based Assistive Technologies to the Java Platform

★ wanayoo — archive 1999 http://java.sun.com/features/2000/03/accessbridge.html

BRIDGING THE GAP
Java^TM Access Bridge Links Windows-based Assistive Technologies to the Java Platform

by Mary Smaragdis

March 22, 2000 -- For millions of Americans who have some physical disability, access to digital information and applications is not always easy. If issues of accessibility are not a design goal as a software developer or webmaster architects a project, then the resulting technology can be unusable or awkward for users with disabilities, and sometimes incomplete or inaccurate. Too often, experts say, issues of accessibility are a postscript in the development cycle of new technology.

The Java^TM platform has been an important milestone for the development of accessible applications. The Java 2 platform specifically made enabling technology -- the Java Accessibility API -- a core component. As such it facilitates the development of accessible applications and enables assistive technologies, such as screen readers or speech recognition technology, to get at the information contained in applications.

The Java Accessibility API is contained within the user interface components of the Java platform known as Java Foundation Classes (also known as "Swing" components). The user interface is the means by which all users -- including users with disabilities -- interact with an application. With the Java Accessibility API incorporated into JFC technology, the hooks are in place that allow assistive technologies to extract and interact with the information and meet users' needs. As a result, the millions of developers using the JFC/Swing APIs to build the user interface for their applications are automatically gaining enabling technology in their development environment. And this means their applications can potentially support accessibility and enable accessible -- universal -- design.

Of course, using JFC/Swing APIs does not automatically guarantee that the application will be 100% accessible. Developers writing custom components must specifically implement the Java Accessibility API on those components. Also, developers must make sure they don't block or break aspects of the Java Accessibility API as they are developing their applications. They also need to verify that their applications are fully controllable by the keyboard alone. Failing to do so can cause keyboard navigation to drop into a black hole that the user cannot "see" or navigate out of.

"It's wonderful to be part of the creation and not an afterthought," says Janina Sajka, director of Information Systems Research and Development at the American Foundation for the Blind. "I find it exciting that we can build a technology that makes it possible for an application designer to include people with disabilities without having to do something special to make the application accessible."

Although work on Java platform-based assistive technologies is ongoing, most of the assistive technologies on the market today are not written to the Java platform. As a result, the Java platform has been a "black box" of sorts for many disabled users.

Ensuring Access

The Java Access Bridge is bridging the gap by allowing existing assistive technology products -- such as Microsoft Windows-based screen readers -- to provide access to Java technology-based applets and applications that support the Java Accessibility API.

The Java Access Bridge, which is available for free download, does this by providing a pair of Windows DLLs (Dynamic Link Libraries) and a Java language classfile. Together these make a bridge for the Java Accessibility API between the Java virtual machine and the Microsoft Windows host platform. Thus assistive technology vendors can add support for the Java Accessibility API to their Windows-based products.

"Vendors of assistive technologies do not have to rewrite their entire product to the Java platform to benefit from the features that the Java platform provides," says Peter Korn of the Sun Accessibility team. "The Java Access Bridge provides a simple, easy to use DLL which gives products like screen readers the information they need to provide very high-quality access to Java technology-based applications. This means that users who need access to the applications won't have to juggle multiple technologies, such as a screen reader written for the Java platform and a second screen reader for everything else in Windows."

"This is an exciting development that lets us get our hands into the Java platform and use Java technology," adds Janina Sajka. "From the visually impaired user's perspective, the Java platform has all been theory so far. This is the connector that puts that theory into practice."

The Hurdles

The challenge for assistive technologies, specifically screen readers, is to help a blind user "see" the page, says Neal Ewers, instrumentation specialist and researcher at the Trace Research and Development Center, a university organization focused on disability access to communication, computers and next-generation information systems.

"If I am blind, I have to hear what I `see,' and I can only `see' one thing at a time," says Ewers.

The challenge for Java Access Bridge is to be able to feed dynamic information to the screen reader so that, as the content on the screen changes, the screen reader is able to announce these changes audibly to the blind user. And this can be a complicated proposition in applications or environments where there are multiple activities going on simultaneously.

"The challenge to the screen reader in multifaceted applications is to be able to provide the complete picture when you're only seeing one thing at a time," says Ewers.

The Java Access Bridge aims to address this problem by providing the underlying plumbing to deliver the content on the screen to the screen reader.

"We're providing the infrastructure that channels information via the Java Access Bridge," says Korn. "This frees up assistive technology developers to work on providing features that enhance their products and creates a better user experience."

Henter-Joyce: Leading the Way

Henter-Joyce, a major purveyor of assistive technologies, produces software to help blind or visually-impaired people browse the web, do email, work on spreadsheets or access database information using screen readers and screen magnifiers. Their products are used by employees at Honeywell, Pizza Hut, Federal Express, AT&T-Bell Labs, USA Today, McDonnell-Douglass, Hughes Aircraft, and other companies.

Their flagship product JAWS for Windows has over 40,000 users worldwide and is translated into 8 languages. JAWS -- an acronym standing for Jobs Access With Speech -- is in use at more than 700 universities where blind students use the software to participate. The Social Security Administration also employs 700 blind people using this software. JAWS for Windows version 3.5 supports the Java Accessibility API via the Java Access Bridge.

"The screen reader is a tool that embeds itself between the user and the application and it becomes the UI," says Eric Damery, vice president of business development at Henter-Joyce. "The Java Access Bridge is providing access to the information that is there on the screen."

And as the user moves within the application, or things change, the Java Access Bridge is used to transmit this new content to the screen reader. "Without the information that the Java Access Bridge provides, today's screen-reading technology for Windows is very limited when trying to read screens in Java technology-based applications," adds Damery. "In the grand scheme of things, for visually impaired users running our software, it [Java Access Bridge] is a very significant step."

The Java Access Bridge resolves many of the issues associated with bridging the gap between Java technology-based applications and assistive technology. It has no effect on a JAWS user's ability to interact with Windows-based applications.

By providing the plumbing that funnels the content on the screen to the screen reader application, the Java Access Bridge simplifies the development of assistive technologies. "The more work we put into getting the information on the screen, the less work we can put into delivering the information," adds Damery. "Screen-reader developers at Henter-Joyce can now focus on better means of delivering information to the blind consumer using JAWS for Windows."

Accessibility as a Prerequisite

There is a new US federal law that requires all public-bound technologies purchased or developed by the federal government to be accessible to people with disabilities.

"Getting a job with the government needs to be about your abilities, not your disabilities. The same goes for the public accessing government information or services," says Sajka, who served on the government's advisory committee that drafted a proposal on how to enforce this law. "This law says that the government will take care to ensure that its electronic information technologies can be the toolset for all of us, not just some of us."

"As a society we keep working on learning how to be more inclusive, and this is a way to include people," adds Sajka. "Technology has ceased to be something just for smart `whiz kids.' It's how business is done. Email and the Web are almost a component of literacy now."

Sajka notes that this is true for all users, including users with disabilities. "I think it's profoundly exciting. When it works, it provides magnificent access to people who were previously excluded."

The Java Access Bridge and the Java Accessibility API are a solid foundation for ensuring that future technologies remain accessible to users with disabilities.

"When you build a generic standard, you make a way for future innovation to happen that continues to support accessibility," says Sajka. "There are so many technologies that we haven't thought up yet, and using the Java platform as generic standard for this development means that all users -- including users with disabilities -- will have access."

In conclusion Sajka adds: "It's not about the disability; it's about what is the horizon. It's about how far we take our abilities. In a way, we are almost a laboratory of human potential."

Ensuring Access

The Hurdles

Henter-Joyce: Leading the Way

Accessibility as a Prerequisite

See Also