1. We are developing an API (the Java Accessibility API) to allow Java
programs to be compatible with screen access software. This API
will be
packaged in two forms: as a downloadable package called
'com.sun.java.accessibility', which will work in any Java VM, from
JDK 1.0.2
to the present; and it will be packaged as the JDK core package
'java.accessibility', to ship with the next release of the JDK around
the
end of this year. This API consists of three basic interfaces
(interface
Accessible, interface AccessibleText, and interface AccessibleLayout),
as
well as a few utility classes (Role, State, AttributeSet, etc.) which
are
used by these interfaces to convey information that isn't easily
representable as a String or an Integer.
2. We are developing a set of utility classes for Assistive Technology
vendors that allow them to easily make queries of the system (things
like
"GetObjectAtPoint", "GetTopLevelWindows", etc.), which will be available
as
a downloadable package to work in any Java VM from JDK 1.1 to the present
in
'com.sun.java.accessibility' - including the not quite full JDK 1.1
support
in the Microsoft Java VM.
3. We are developing a standard mechanism for getting the Java Accessibility
API information out of the Java VM and to asssitive technology running
in
the native host environment. This mechanism will be based on
JNI - Java
Native Interfaces.
4. We are developing the pluggable look & feel architecture to support
direct accessibility in the Java Foundation Classes - specifically
the
"Swing" set. This will require JDK 1.1, but doesn't require JNI
or
RMI.
class AbstractAccessible contains a default implementation of many of
the
Accessibility methods in java.awt.Component. It's provided as
a convenience to---
application developers who are creating UI components that do not extend
java.awt.component, so that they can more easily support interface
Accessible on
those UI components, simply by making them extend AbstractAccessible.