4

My employer purchased a license of "JAWS" screen reader for us to test out for a potential new employee who is visually impaired. I've been testing it on all our internal applications (mostly web apps) and everything has worked fairly well, except one web app that contains an embedded java applet in the page. This is not an app we developed.

I installed the Java Access Bridge and now I can't even click/interact with this java applet anymore. At this point I'm not sure if I did something wrong with my installation, or if the java applet is not handicap accessible to begin with.

The screen reader vendor has been somewhat helpful. They just told me the java applet needs to be written using the "Swing Class / AWT" components, but I have no way to verify this. I need a java applet that is known to be handicap accessible. I just need to go to a web page and see if my screen reader can read from a java applet. This will tell me if my install is bad, or if my applet is bad.

The screen reader vendor recommended I download the Java JDK for some sample applets. This has not worked out, as our enterprise is running a Java Runtime version that is newer than the current release of the JDK. The JDK won't install because it would be a downgrade.

So... can anybody help me find a publicly accessible web page with a screen-reader friendly java applet that I can use to test this screen reader?

JasonMArcher
  • 14,195
  • 22
  • 56
  • 52
Ben Brandt
  • 2,851
  • 5
  • 34
  • 45

2 Answers2

1

Select a property (e.g. java.version) from this form then click Submit

The applet at the other end is written using Swing.

Andrew Thompson
  • 168,117
  • 40
  • 217
  • 433
0

Use Java Ferret - comes with the Java Access Bridge in the same folder: About Java Ferret

Norman B. Robins0n
  • 424
  • 3
  • 7
  • This will not test the default loading of a Java applet through the browser. As a Jaws user I can state with certainty that just because Java Ferret works doesn't mean Java applets will. Having multiple versions of Java installed on a machine can easily lead to an issue where Java Ferret works well since JRE 6.0 update 27 runs Java Ferret fine when you launch it. When running a Java applet your browser uses JRE 6.0 update 31 instead of update 27, update 31 doesn't have the access bridge installed, and your out of luck. – Jared Feb 06 '12 at 21:31
  • Right: if your system is misconfigured, it won't work. However, if misconfigured, JAWS won't work either. If properly configured, I still stand by my recommendation. – Norman B. Robins0n Feb 07 '12 at 16:33