Moving Goalposts Sam Rowley Ray Reid Learning Development and Innovation Staffordshire University

Introduction. Experiences of trying to make the COSE VLE accessible: Problems and some solutions; Don’t have all the answers; Advice to avoid the same problems. Non-technical where possible: See summary guidelines handout for nuts and bolts. Comments and suggestions welcomed.

The COSE VLE. Originally JISC Technology Applications Programme Project. Developed since 1996: Java 1.0; Interface has evolved through several Java versions. Retrofit accessibility to the existing interface: Not designed in from the start.

The COSE User Interface. Management Tools Lots of tabs Search Tools Basket Plus other windows

COSE Architecture 1. Web Browser: Division of responsibility: Frameset, Right - COSE Browser/Editor, Left – content. Division of responsibility: Content rendered by browser, Content organized and invoked by applet. Other windows are launched from the applet: Management Tools, Search Tools, Basket.

COSE Architecture 2. Client-server system. Java client: Need to make the interface accessible; Usability issues. Perl server scripts: Command-line interface, text-only; Dealt with by operating system accessibility features.

The Approach. Identify Java accessibility information: Language features; Tools; Guidelines. Determine relevant guideline advice. Implement relevant advice. Test.

Identify Java Accessibility Features and Tools 1. Java Accessibility API: Built into Java Foundation Class (JFC) components; Makes applet compatible with assistive technologies. Java Accessibility Utilities: Used in assistive technology applications; Come with inspection and testing tools. Pluggable look and feel of the JFC components: Swap look and feel - Braille, audio; No need for separate assistive technology.

Identify Java Accessibility Features and Tools 2. Java Access Bridge To Native Code: Bridge between Operating System and Java Virtual Machine.

Identify Accessibility Guidelines. IBM Java accessibility checklist. W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines. Sun Java Tutorial. Sun Developing Accessible JFC Applications article. Sun What's New with Accessibility article. Sun Java Look and Feel Design Guidelines books. IMS Guidelines for Developing Accessible Learning Applications.

Determine Relevant Advice 1. IBM Java accessibility checklist: Comprehensive; Relevant to COSE: Keyboard access; Object information – names, descriptions, focus; Display – colour, inherit system settings; Documentation – accessible documents, document accessibility features. Not relevant to COSE: Sound and multimedia – audio alerts, audio and video alternatives; Timing – timed responses, blinking text.

Determine Relevant Advice 2. W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines: COSE does not create content; Frames; Applets. Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines: COSE does not author content. User Agent Accessibility Guidelines: General advice covered in more specific terms in other guidelines.

Determine Relevant Advice 3. Sun Java Tutorial: Short java-specific tips. Sun Developing Accessible JFC Applications article: Good compliment to IBM checklist. Sun What's New with Accessibility article: Java Accessibility Utilities section; Testing.

Determine Relevant Advice 4. Sun Java Look and Feel Design Guidelines books: Small amount of accessibility information; Books address usability which enhances accessibility. IMS Guidelines for Developing Accessible Learning Applications: General advice – not Java specific; XML; Communication and collaboration tools.

Implement Relevant Guidelines. Keyboard traversal: Mnemonics, Accelerators. Accessible names. Tooltips. Accessible descriptions. Label associations. Unmodified JFC components: Focus traversal; Accessibility API.

Testing. Two branches of testing: Guideline conformance: Use guidelines as a checklist to check that relevant advice has been implemented. Ensure each accessibility field is filled in appropriately. Use Java Accessibility Helper to spot any gaps or omissions. Use Ferret and Monkey to check problems at runtime. Usability testing (with an Assistive Technology): Get end-users to test the applet. People who use the AT regularly. Review, correct and refine the interface based on the test results and user comments.

Testing - Accessibility Helper. Download from Java web site: http://java.sun.com. Checks: Accessible names; Accessible descriptions; Keyboard traversal; Focus. Generates reports: Highlights omissions.

Testing – Ferret. Part of the Accessibility Utilities. Runs at the same time as the applet. Shows accessibility information for the component under the mouse. Use to pinpoint problems or double check that a component has accessibility information.

Testing – Monkey. Part of the Accessibility Utilities. Displays tree of components and their assistive equivalents. More suited to assistive technology developers. Can be used to check accessible information for components but more likely to use Ferret.

Testing – Assistive Technology. Developer testing with Assistive Technology can be of some use. Need testing by an expert to rule out problems due to unfamiliarity with the technology. Expert testing of Standalone Content Objects done so far: First look at the interface.

Issues 1. Security dialog: Tooltip explosion: Tooltip conflict: Does not read out the security dialog text. Tooltip explosion: Too many tooltips; Interferes with usability. Tooltip conflict: Use tooltip or accessible description but not both. Behaviour varies with JAWS version: Not sure what behaviour to expect.

Issues 2. Internationalization: Focus: Need to extract mnemonics and accelerators to bundle; Need to write code to transform into key events; Doesn’t seem to be documented anywhere. Focus: Cannot give the applet focus using the keyboard; JAWS does not read accessible names and descriptions.

Issues 3. Status bar is not a status bar: Key binding conflicts: Does not read out status messages. Key binding conflicts: Our copy and paste vs JFC equivalent. Colour and font customization: Does not inherit fonts and colours: Easy for Windows Look and Feel only; No facility for colour and font choice.

Issues 4. Guidelines cover how to add names and descriptions but not what they should be: Need to test to ascertain what works and what doesn’t by testing. Not enough context and orientation information: Need more logical grouping of components in panels with accessible names. HTML page titles need to be short and simple: Avoids screen reader reading out loads of text when applet loads.

Summary Guidelines. Some guidelines offer conflicting advice. Advice is not in one place. Some of the advice is not relevant when developing with JFC components: Get a lot of behaviour for free. Produced guidelines as summary of current relevant advice all in one place: Use as a starting point; Details in source guidelines and articles.

Conclusions 1. Themes. Moving goalposts: Stay up to date: Guidelines evolve; Java evolves: Accessible relation etc with 1.3. ATs evolve: Different behaviour with different versions of ATs. Stay up to date: Keep checking the online guidelines for up to date information. Themes

Conclusions 2. Focus on usability and accessibility: Can conform to accessibility guidelines without being usable; Every user benefits when an applet is designed with usability in mind. The proof is in the testing: Test for usability; Test with assistive technologies; Test iteratively.

Conclusions 3. Design with accessibility in mind: Keep it simple: Easier than trying to bolt on later. Keep it simple: Use clear and simple language; Strive for simplicity in the user language. Keep it consistent: Avoid multiple objects with the same name; Maintain a consistent meaning for icons throughout the interface.

The Future. Current COSE: COSE 3: A lot more to do; Focus issue is problematic. COSE 3: Being designed with accessibility in mind; Simplicity; Individual tools; Application rather than applet?

References. IBM Java accessibility checklist http://www-306.ibm.com/able/guidelines/java/accessjava.html. W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines http://www.w3.org/WAI/Resources/#gl. Sun Java Tutorial: Trail: Creating a GUI with JFC/Swing Lesson: Using Other Swing Features Section: How to Support Assistive Technologies http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/misc/access.html. Sun Developing Accessible JFC Applications http://www.sun.com/access/developers/developing-accessible-apps/. Sun What's New with Accessibility http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/GUI/accessibility2/. IMS Guidelines for Developing Accessible Learning Applications http://www.imsglobal.org/accessibility/accessiblevers/.

Sam Rowley c.s.rowley@staffs.ac.uk Ray Reid r.g.reid@staffs.ac.uk Thank You Sam Rowley c.s.rowley@staffs.ac.uk Ray Reid r.g.reid@staffs.ac.uk