JAVA ACCESSIBILITY
The Road Ahead
Version 1.2
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The Road Ahead
With the release of JDK 1.2, the core foundation of accessibility support
in the Java Foundation is completed and released. The work ahead involves
additions to the Java Accessibility API to cover new components that will
be added to the Java Foundation Classes (and provide more detailed coverage
of a few of the existing, complex components); evolving the Java Accessibility
Utilities; finishing the Java Accessibility Bridge; and incorporating the
accessibility support into Sun's Java products.
The Java Accessibility API
The Java Accessibility API is well defined, and implemented on all of the
user interface components of the Java Foundation Classes. As new user
interface component are added, we will need to ensure that they properly
support the Java Accessibility API. In addition, we plan on evolving
the Java Accessibility API itself to include new interfaces, such as
AccessibleTable and AccessibleDocument, which will provide a richer and
more detailed contract to describe the contents of these kinds of components.
The Java Accessibility Utilities
The Java Accessibility Utilities continue to evolve, though we're striving
to make the changes backwards compatible. Future work may include
a more serious effort on the AWT translators, though we're strongly encouraging
application developers to use the Swing user interface classes.
The Java Accessibility Bridge to Native Code
The Java Accessibility Bridge is the least defined portion of the current
Java Accessibility work at Sun. Each platform the bridge works on requires
a different implementation, and care must be taken in the design so that
it will work on every Java platform. Sun is actively working with
assistive technology vendors to implement the Java Accessibility Bridge
to the Win32 platform.
Areas to focus on in the future
While the four areas in Java Accessibility that Sun is focusing on now
are the key core areas, there are other parts of the Java platform that
need to be addressed from an Accessibility point of view. That focus isn't
possible until there is a defined Java Accessibility API, support for assistive
technologies to get at that API, and a Pluggable Look and Feel architecture.
But once those pieces are released, it will be time to focus on these other
areas. They are as follows:
JavaOSTM
The Java Operating System is designed to run on very thin clients - Network
Computers, that will be used more and more in place of the larger and more
expensive personal computers of today. The current released version of
the JavaOS, JavaOS 1.0, is based on JDK1.0.2. The next release, JavaOS
1.1, is based on JDK1.1. Sun is targeting the release after JavaOS 1.1,
based on the forthcoming release of the JDK, for full Accessibility support.
Sun's Java Applications
Sun has released several Java applications and has more in the works. Released
applications include the Java Web Server, Java WorkShopTM,
and Visual Java. Once the Java Accessibility API is released, Sun can start
supporting it in updates to their existing Java applications, as well as
the new Java applications Sun releases after that time. This support will
come in many instances by virtue of using and/or switching to Swing as
the means for the user interfaces of these programs.
Copyright©
1995-98 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
To submit comments or suggestions about Java
Accessibility, please send mail to access@sun.com.