Dear Development Manager:
Since I am employed as a programmer at Kennedy Space Center, I took great
interest in your first Geekspeak topic.
My job requires that I write Java applets using Symantec Visual Cafe Pro.
As you well know, the Java intensive screens produced by this IDE are mostly
inaccessible to JFW. I have had to rely upon sighted co-workers to examine
and test my programs.
I am happy to learn that JFW 3.5 will feature better support for Java,
but I am puzzled by your statement that JFW 3.5 will not support applets
written using the AWT classes, but only the Swing classes. The Sun web site
that you referred to says the following:
"The Accessibility API provides a clean interface that allows assistive
technologies to interact and communicate with JFC and AWT components.
Assistive technologies are used by people with and without disabilities and
include screen readers, screen magnifiers, and speech recognition.
Development of this API has followed an open design process based on input
from experts in the assistive technology field."
Can you explain this apparent contradiction? It would be a real shame if
the vast majority of Java applets, which use the AWT classes, were to
remained inaccessible to JFW users.
Best regards,
Alan Clendinen
-
Visit the jfw ml web page: http://jfw.cjb.net
