IBM Creates New Java Technology to Help Blind Computer Users Access The 'Net October 23, 1997 MINNEAPOLIS, October 23, 1997 . . . Demonstrating its continuing commitment to computer users who are disabled, IBM today unveiled prototype software aimed at helping people who are blind keep up with their sighted colleagues as the workplace embraces the Internet. The new software "reads" aloud the information on the computer screen in a synthesized computer voice through small speakers attached to the computer. It is the first screen-reading software built using Java**, the rapidly emerging Internet technology from Sun Microsystems that IBM is aggressively supporting. Inventors have code-named the new Java-based screen reader prototype "Java Jive." IBM demonstrated "Java Jive" here at the Closing The Gap conference, a three-day meeting expected to draw 2,000 disabled people, educators, therapists and business people. IBM also demonstrated products from its Independence Series that help people with a range of disabilities. Those products include ViaVoice*, a speech recognition program that allows people with limited mobility to talk to their computer; SpeechViewer III*, a speech therapy tool that turns speech into visual patterns to help deaf people learn to speak; Screen Magnifier/2*, a tool that enlarges computer text for people with vision impairments; and Screen Reader/2*, which reads information on the screen for computer systems that run the OS/2* and DOS* operating systems. Representatives of both IBM and Sun gave a collaborative presentation outlining their initiatives to make Java accessible to workers who are disabled. Traditionally, when a new computer technology sweeps American workplaces, disabled computer users are left behind, until product developers can catch up and build adaptive solutions. For example, when computer systems evolved from text to windows and graphics, it took half a decade until screen readers reached the marketplace that could describe those innovations in synthesized speech to blind users. Today, Java is the fastest-growing computer language, and 500,000 software developers are using Java to write the most innovative new Internet applications. Disabled computer users could now face the same roadblocks with networked computing they once faced with their desktop computing systems. For example, the colorful icons and animations that guide a sighted user around the Internet must be recognizable by the screen readers that translate the graphics for computer users who are blind. New Internet applications must be compatible with the speech systems, joy sticks and other alternative devices used by people with limited mobility who can't use a mouse or a keyboard. And the video clips that hearing users find so informative and entertaining must be adaptable to captioning for computer users who are deaf. Sun Microsystems, which invented and licenses Java, is specifying accessibility interfaces in the basic Java code. IBM is working with Sun to help define and validate those interfaces and apply them in adaptive products. In addition to developing Java code that can be easily adapted, Sun and IBM are making special 'tool kits' and guidelines available to developers to help them make new applications accessible as they're first brought to market. With accessibility features built into Java early, it will be easier for the developers of assistive technology to make networked applications accessible. So computer users who are disabled will be able to keep pace with their coworkers as Internet applications are adopted broadly in business. And the features will help maintain accessibility as corporations build their own networks that deliver standard banking, insurance and other business applications to the employees' desktop computers from a central server. "Because Java is becoming so popular, we need to take action now to make it accessible," said Dennis O'Brien, product manager of IBM's Special Needs Systems. "If we don't, computer users with special needs will once again be left behind." O'Brien expects that these early efforts to make Java and network computing accessible will result in Java-based adaptive products reaching the marketplace as early as next year. More information on IBM*,s Java initiatives can be found on the Web at http://www.ibm.com/Java. More information on IBM Special Needs Systems can be found at http://www.ibm.com/sns. * Indicates trademark or registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. ** Java is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.