Category: Geeks r Us
Hey all.
I've been doing java programming for a few months now as part of my cs degree. We've finally started doing some gui stuff, but this brings with it some accessibility issues. At the moment, from what I can tell, the only way that I'm going to be able to make accessible interfaces is if I learn the accessibility api which in the long term doesn't sound like a bad idea, but I don't really want to do it right now.
I noticed that windoweyes has somehing that is meant to read java gui's, but the process was so drawn out when I tryed it with a 1 line message box that I considder it pretty much useless - I could just be missing something though.
Has anyone been in a situation like this and if so, what would you suggest?
Thanks for reading.
Get a reader and have them describe the gui's you create. Being able to create a GUI isn't important to be a good computer scientist, understanding theory for things like data structures and algorathims is.
The best way to write accessible Java gui is to use the SWT (Standard Widget Toolkit). I believe controls in SWT are accessible, not 100% whether you need the Java access Brdige installed for those to be vissible or it is not even necessary.
However I agree with Jared that GUI is definitely not what you should be concnetrated on and may be you can have a sighted T.A. help you with them (since they're often drag and drop) or you even skip them altogether and may be write a web service instead as a compromise.
Chears for the responses. I don't really mind someone sighted helping me make them, its more the fact that unless I do a fair bit more coding than everyone else I won't be able to use them.
I was under the impression that even if you have the bridge installed you still have to have included accessibility in your code for screenreaders to get at it.
Once again, thanks or the replies; I'll have a think about what to do.
SWT uses widgets native to the particular OS, so you don't need the Java Access Bridge installed.