Java Reference
In-Depth Information
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Components that are inside containers that aren't accessible are themselves not accessible.
Be sure to use
JPanel
as your container, rather than the AWT
Container
class, to ensure
your screens are accessible.
Note
To see how well you've done creating accessible programs, you can try using the Java Accessibility
Utilities, available from the JFC Assistive Technologies home page at
http://java.sun.com/products/
jfc/accessibility/
. These downloadable utilities are designed to let you see exposed accessibility
properties in different forms. However, I personally couldn't get them to work. The
jaccess.jar
and
jaccess-examples.jar
files needed weren't available, nor were the imported classes for the code
that was provided.
■
Working with the Java Access Bridge
If you happen to be working on a Microsoft Windows platform, you can try out the Java Access
Bridge, available from
http://java.sun.com/products/accessbridge/
. This utility is easy to use.
■
Caution
To get the Java Access Bridge, do not follow the link from the main Accessibility page. The link
available there in early 2005 pointed to the 1.0.4 beta version of the product. You should download at least
version 1.2, available directly from
http://java.sun.com/products/accessbridge/
.
After downloading
accessbridge-1_2.zip
, unpack it and run the
Install
program, found
in the
installer
subdirectory. After the program checks Java virtual machines (JVMs) for
compatibility, it prompts you to select in which of the compatible JVMs you want the bridge
installed. As Figure 22-1 shows, if you happen to have a few JVMs on your system, this may be
in several places. Just pick the ones you are most likely to use. The program might also prompt
you to remove some of the older versions on your machine. The directories that begin with
c:\program files\java
are the different versions of Java Plug-in for the browser.
Figure 22-1.
Installing the Java Access Bridge
