JAVA applications become more accessible
Sun Microsystems' Accessibility Program has teh slogan, "Driven by the belief that designing to meet the needs of users with disabilities can improve the productivity of ALL users." What are they doing to back this up? Sun has recently earned the Americans with Disabilities Act Eagle Award in acknowledgment of its advancements in enabling technologies-largely for their work with Enabling Technologies in building accessibility for Java that does the following:
Works with the accessibility architecture(s) built into any platform on which Java programs run Scales and extends beyond desktop systems to include Java-powered devices such as information kiosks and nomadic systems Enables and promotes built-in accessibility to minimize the need for external assistive technology Provides programmatic support for assistive technologies Enables developer tools to implement and utilize the architecture in a way that promotes "access friendly" design methods
Some of their other activities include:
Developing guidelines on how to build accessible products
Specifying functional requirements for access solutions
Enabling Sun products to meet the requirements of Section 508 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Telecommunications Act
Establishing partnerships with research organizations, corporations, and standards bodies to focus on increasing product accessibility.
Worried about the inaccessiblity of Java applets that populate the educational, work, and social web? Looks like we'll have help soon.
For more info, click on http://www.sun.com/access/general/overview.html, http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/accessibility/reference/docs/index.html or http://www.zdnetindia.com/index.php?action=article&prodid=13650&chid=70&Ref=Java