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Package javax.accessibility

Defines a contract between user-interface components and an assistive technologythat provides access to those components.

See:
           Description

Interface Summary
Accessible Interface Accessible is the main interface for the accessibility package.
AccessibleAction The AccessibleAction interface should be supported by any object that can perform one or more actions.
AccessibleComponent The AccessibleComponent interface should be supported by any object that is rendered on the screen.
AccessibleEditableText The AccessibleEditableText interface should be implemented by all classes that present editable textual information on the display.
AccessibleExtendedComponent The AccessibleExtendedComponent interface should be supported by any object that is rendered on the screen.
AccessibleExtendedTable Class AccessibleExtendedTable provides extended information about a user-interface component that presents data in a two-dimensional table format.
AccessibleExtendedText The AccessibleExtendedText interface contains additional methods not provided by the AccessibleText interface Applications can determine if an object supports the AccessibleExtendedText interface by first obtaining its AccessibleContext (see Accessible ) and then calling the AccessibleContext.getAccessibleText() method of AccessibleContext.
AccessibleHypertext The AccessibleHypertext class is the base class for all classes that present hypertext information on the display.
AccessibleIcon The AccessibleIcon interface should be supported by any object that has an associated icon (e.g., buttons).
AccessibleKeyBinding The AccessibleKeyBinding interface should be supported by any object that has a keyboard bindings such as a keyboard mnemonic and/or keyboard shortcut which can be used to select the object.
AccessibleSelection This AccessibleSelection interface provides the standard mechanism for an assistive technology to determine what the current selected children are, as well as modify the selection set.
AccessibleStreamable  
AccessibleTable Class AccessibleTable describes a user-interface component that presents data in a two-dimensional table format.
AccessibleTableModelChange The AccessibleTableModelChange interface describes a change to the table model.
AccessibleText The AccessibleText interface should be implemented by all classes that present textual information on the display.
AccessibleValue The AccessibleValue interface should be supported by any object that supports a numerical value (e.g., a scroll bar).
 

Class Summary
AccessibleAttributeSequence This class collects together the span of text that share the same contiguous set of attributes, along with that set of attributes.
AccessibleAttributeSequence Information about a contiguous sequence of text attributes
AccessibleBundle Base class used to maintain a strongly typed enumeration.
AccessibleContext AccessibleContext represents the minimum information all accessible objects return.
AccessibleHyperlink Encapsulation of a link, or set of links (e.g.
AccessibleRelation Class AccessibleRelation describes a relation between the object that implements the AccessibleRelation and one or more other objects.
AccessibleRelationSet Class AccessibleRelationSet determines a component's relation set.
AccessibleResourceBundle Deprecated.   This class is deprecated as of version 1.3 of the Java 2 Platform.
AccessibleRole Class AccessibleRole determines the role of a component.
AccessibleState Class AccessibleState describes a component's particular state.
AccessibleStateSet Class AccessibleStateSet determines a component's state set.
AccessibleTextSequence This class collects together key details of Information about a span contiguous sequence of text.
 

Package javax.accessibility Description

Defines a contract between user-interface components and an assistive technologythat provides access to those components. If a Java application fully supportsthe Java Accessibility API, then it should be compatible with, and friendlytoward, assistive technologies such as screen readers, screen magnifiers,etc. With a Java application that fully supports the Java AccessibilityAPI, no screen reader off screen model would be necessary because the APIprovides all of the information normally contained in an off screen model.

The Java Accessibility API package consists of 8 Java programming languageinterfaces, and 6 Java programming language classes. These are describedbelow.

Interface Accessible

Interface Accessible is the main interfaceof the Java Accessibility API. All components that support the Java AccessibilityAPI must implement this interface. It contains a single method, getAccessibleContext ,that returns an instance of the class AccessibleContext .Sun thinks that implementing this interface is the absolute minimum requirementof every object that is part of the user interface of a Java application,if that program is to be compatible with assistive technologies.

ClassAccessibleContext

AccessibleContext represents the minimuminformation all accessible objects return and is obtained by calling the getAccessibleContext method on an object that implements the Accessible interface. This information includes the accessible name, description, role , and state of the object, as well as information about the parent and children ofthe object.  In addition, JavaBeans TM property change support is also included to allow assisitive technologieslearn when the values of the accessible properties change. AccessibleContextalso contains methods for obtaining more specific accessibility informationabout a component. If the component supports it, these methods will returnan object that implements one or more of the following interfaces:

Class AccessibleRole

This class encapsulates the Accessible object's role in the user interfaceand is obtained by calling the getAccessibleRole method on an AccessibleContext . Accessible roles include"Check box", "Menu Item", "Panel", etc. These roles are identified by theconstants in this class such as AccessibleRole.CHECK_BOX, AccessibleRole.MENU_ITEM, and AccessibleRole.PANEL . The constants in this class presenta strongly typed enumeration of common object roles. A public constructorfor this class has been purposely omitted and applications should use oneof the constants from this class. Although this class pre-defines a largelist of standard roles, it is extensible so additional programmer-definedroles can be added in the future without needing to modify the base class.

Class AccessibleState

This class encapsulates a particular state of the Accessible object. Accessiblestates include things like "Armed", "Busy", "Checked", "Focused", etc.These roles are identified by the constants in this class such as AccessibleState.ARMED,AccessibleState.BUSY, AccessibleState.CHECKED, and AccessibleState.FOCUSED .The sum of all the states of an Accessible object is called the AccessibleStateSet ,and can be obtained by calling the getAccessibleStateSet methodon an AccessibleContext .

The constants in this class present a strongly typed enumeration ofcommon object roles. A public constructor for this class has been purposelyomitted and applications should use one of the constants from this class.Although this class pre-defines a large list of standard roles, it is extensibleso additional, programmer-defined roles can be added in the future withoutneeding to modify the base class.

ClassAccessibleStateSet

This class encapsulates a collection of states of the Accessible objectand is obtained by calling the getAccessibleStateSet method onan AccessibleContext . Since an objectmight have multiple states (e.g. it might be both "Checked" and "Focused"),this class is needed to encapsulate a collection of these states. Methodsin the class provide for retrieving the individual AccessibleStates on the state set.

Class AccessibleBundle

This class is used to maintain a strongly typed enumeration. It is thesuper class of both the AccessibleRole and AccessibleState classes. Programmers normallydo not interact with this class directly, but will instead use the AccessibleRole and AccessibleState classes.

InterfaceAccessibleAction

The AccessibleAction interface shouldbe supported by any object that can perform one or more actions. This interfaceprovides the standard mechanism for an assistive technology to determinewhat those actions are as well as tell the object to perform those actions.Any object that can be manipulated should support this interface.

Applications can determine if an object supports the AccessibleActioninterface by first obtaining its AccessibleContext (see Accessible ) and then calling the getAccessibleAction method of AccessibleContext . If the returnvalue is not null, the object supports this interface.

InterfaceAccessibleComponent

The AccessibleComponent interfaceshould be supported by any object that is rendered on the screen. Thisinterface provides the standard mechanism for an assistive technology todetermine and set the graphical representation of an object.

Applications can determine if an object supports the AccessibleComponentinterface by first obtaining its AccessibleContext (see Accessible ) and then calling the getAccessibleComponent method of AccessibleContext . If the returnvalue is not null, the object supports this interface.

InterfaceAccessibleSelection

The AccessibleSelection interfaceprovides the standard mechanism for an assistive technology to determinewhat the current selected children are, as well as modify the selectionset. Any object that has children that can be selected should support thisthe AccessibleSelection interface.

Applications can determine if an object supports the AccessibleSelectioninterface by first obtaining its AccessibleContext (see Accessible ) and then calling the getAccessibleSelection method of AccessibleContext . If the returnvalue is not null, the object supports this interface.

Interface AccessibleText

Interface AccessibleText is the contractfor making rich, editable text Accessible. Not all text displayed on thescreen is rich and editable (e.g. text contained in buttons, labels, menus,etc., which users aren't expected to manipulate). However, objects containingeditable text must implement interface AccessibleText if they are to interoperatewith assistive technologies.

This interface provides support for going between pixel coordinatesand the text at a given pixel coordinate, for retrieving the letter, word,and sentence at, before, or after a given position in the text. This interfaceprovides support for retrieving the attributes of the character at a givenposition in the text (font, font size, style, etc.), as well as gettingthe selected text (if any), the length of the text, and the location ofthe text caret.

Applications can determine if an object supports the AccessibleTextinterface by first obtaining its AccessibleContext (see Accessible ) and then calling the getAccessibleText method of AccessibleContext . If the returnvalue is not null, the object supports this interface.

Interface AccessibleHypertext

The AccessibleHypertext interfaceshould be supported by any object that presents hypertext information onthe display. This interface provides the standard mechanism for an assistivetechnology to access that text via its content, attributes, and spatiallocation. It also provides standard mechanisms for manipulating hyperlinks .Applications can determine if an object supports the AccessibleHypertextinterface by first obtaining its AccessibleContext (see Accessible ) and then calling the AccessibleContext.getAccessibleText()method of AccessibleContext . If the returnvalue is a class which extends AccessibleHypertext, then that object supportsAccessibleHypertext.

InterfaceAccessibleHyperlink

An object that is a hyperlink should support the AccessibleHyperlink interface.  An object that implements this interface will be returnedby calling the getLink method on an AccessibleHypertext object.

InterfaceAccessibleValue

The AccessibleValue interface shouldbe supported by any object that supports a numerical value (e.g., a scrollbar). This interface provides the standard mechanism for an assistive technologyto determine and set the numerical value as well as get the minimum andmaximum values.

Applications can determine if an object supports the AccessibleValueinterface by first obtaining its AccessibleContext (see Accessible ) and then calling the getAccessibleValue method of AccessibleContext . If the returnvalue is not null, the object supports this interface.

Since:
JDK1.2