IBM Special Needs group shows prototype Java screen reader in works Electronic Engineering Times November 17, 1997 - page 149 Austin, TX By Robert Bellinger All too often, when a new technology or a new device sweeps the workplace, disabled users are left behind until product developers can catch up and build retroactive solutions. It happened with blind users, daunted by the heavy emphasis on graphical interfaces in early versions of Windows. And it's happening today, as hearing-impaired people find themselves unable to use their hearing aids with cellular phones. Now that Java is on the verge of becoming a major language in technology, will blind software engineers and customers have to play catchup again? Not according to IBM Corp.'s Special Needs group. Working with Java inventor and license holder Sun Microsystems Inc., the unit has debuted a prototype Java-based screen reader for the blind. Unveiled at the Closing the Gap conference in Minneapolis last month, the screen reader - known internally as "Java Jive"- reads aloud the information on the computer screen in a synthesized computer voice. It also produces braille output. It won't be available for sale for another year or so, but beta versions are anticipated sometime next year, according to Rich Schwerdtfeger, lead architect at the Special Needs group. While the screen reader is important, a key element of the effort was to get developers thinking of designing in accessibility from the beginning. To that end, IBM is working with Sun to define and validate accessibility interfaces in the basic Java code. The two companies are making special tool kits to help developers make new applications accessible as they're first brought to market. Schwerdtfeger expects that the screen-reader software will provide access to much more complete documentation. "Traditionally, screen readers have done a poor job of handling word processing with embedded spreadsheets. This new technology can do that," he said. The Java screen-reader technology is also portable. It will run on devices other than desktop PCs, such as pagers, mobile phones and personal digital assistants. Furthermore, a blind software engineer can move from a Unix station to a PC and be able to access Java applets from wherever he or she is. "The possibilities are enormous, said Schwerdtfeger. Christopher Schaltain is a blind staff software engineer at IBM's Austin unit who uses the OS/2 screen reader in his work at the RS-6000 test organization. While Schaltain uses Java as a language to develop tools for tests in the AIX test arena, he hasn't used the Java screen reader for work yet. But he's looking forward to it once it emerges from prototype. "I'm really excited that Rich is working on this," he said. Among other things, Java screen-reader software will give him complete access to documentation on the Web. There are good and bad aspects to that, Schaltain said. "The blind have more access to documents than in the past. The downside is that more Internet applications and documents are interactive, rich in graphics." That makes access more complicated for blind users, though the increasing use of audio over the Web certainly helps. IBM faced some daunting challenges in making the screen reader for Java fully effective. For instance, how much information do you want to convey to a blind user? How do you present a table? Issues to be faced Schaltain was a beta-site user of the OS/2 V.2 screen reader in the early 1990s. He found vexing the issue of what the computer tells users vs. when not to speak. A machine can verbalize white space and ID check boxes on a screen as well as read words. "How much do you really need?" Schaltain asked. "And the amount of information you want changes." When OS/2 was going through its paces, blind users found they wanted all the information they could get. But when fully exposed to it, such information can be annoying and slow you down. "The chatty mode," Schaltain called it. The OS/2 screen reader solved that problem by offering customization, letting users control how much data they wanted from the machine. Schaltain's experience with OS/2 was much better than that of some blind Windows users. It took several years before some were provided with access tools. Microsoft Corp. now has a unit that devotes time and energy to making its Windows programs accessible. In fact, Microsoft was one of the participants at a February conference in which IBM, Sun and other companies conferred on how to make Java more accessible. This increased sensitivity to the needs of the disabled is prompted in part by the work of activists. People like Gregg Vanderheiden of the Trace Center for the Disabled at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, have long urged companies and their engineers to think about "universal design" early in the design cycle. Unlike Windows, where Microsoft had to go back and design in functionality - such as allowing users with impaired mobility to hit one key several times rather than holding down two or three keys at once - IBM, Sun, and others are creating APIs and interfaces that allow developers to integrate accessibility into mainstream designs right at the start. This creates much more stable applications than doing it after the fact, according to Schwerdtfeger. There is, of course, a commercial side to accessible designs. If a company wants to sell to the federal government, it had better be prepared to offer tools and functions for the disabled. Accessible design sometimes creates unexpected benefits for mainstream products. An example: The Special Needs group is eyeing products for use in cars that will require new inputs.