Javax swing GUI controls and text objects aren't rendered into speech!

[nvaccessAuto]

Reported by goyette.mike on 2008-09-10 05:42 I'm finishing a free online roleplaying game, like Dungeons & Dragons, for both sighted and blind children. I wrote two Java clients, one a straight GUI, and the other an applet.

I followed the IBM guidelines for accessability, but your screen reader won't render ANY of my output into speech!

This is a major issue, because it's at the heart of a free fun game program where both sighted and blind can interact, and it's for children, etc....

E-mail me, I'll send you my client code, but I'm telling you it's straightforward and follows the rules. I downloaded 0.6p2, and it works for everything else, but is strangely silent on my JTextBox, JEditBox, etc....

Please tell me I'm just violing some simple rule. I promise a response in 24 hours, but for now my headache requires sleep....

P.S. this is a multi-threaded client-server app where the client is pure Java 1.4.2 code but I compiled under 1.6.1, all Javax and Swing components.

[nvaccessAuto]

Comment 1 by jteh on 2008-09-10 07:16 Did you install the Java Access Bridge? This is required for Java accessibility.

When you say that NVDA "works for everything else", did you test with other Java applications (e.g. the Java Control Panel)?

[nvaccessAuto]

Comment 2 by goyette.mike (in reply to comment 1) on 2008-09-11 03:05 Replying to jteh:

Did you install the Java Access Bridge? This is required for Java accessibility.

When you say that NVDA "works for everything else", did you test with other Java applications (e.g. the Java Control Panel)?

Uh-oh. I downloaded access bridge 2.0.1 and checked the Java Control Panel and ran both clients.

It renders "JFrame window name" and that's about it. None of the text in the Panel is rendered, and nothing in my programs' output JEditorPane (set for HTML) is rendered either! It said something like , as if I where missing the entire interior content on my GUI.

But your web page renders fine, so I know I've got to be doing something simple, stupidly. Did I forget a tag or something that turns speech rendering on?

And why won't Java Control Panel talk to me! Is mine too old? I'm running (ver command) XP 5.1.2600 service pack 2, is that the issue?

Um, I won't let anything stand in my way, so I'll pipe text or write a special client if I have to, but please let me know how you got yours to work!

Um, I plan to go live in two weeks, so we should have time either way. I promise I'll get back to you in at least 12 hours.

And THANK YOU! Without you, I couldn't make this game work for the blind (as well as the paralyzed - I set it up for click-through pointers from the ground up!)

Yrs, mike.

[nvaccessAuto]

Comment 3 by jteh (in reply to comment 2) on 2008-09-11 12:41 Replying to goyette.mike:

Uh-oh. I downloaded access bridge 2.0.1 and checked the Java Control Panel and ran both clients.

What version of Java are you running? Let's ensure that you can get the Java Control Panel to read first before doing anything else. If you can't get that to read, chances are that nothing Java related will read. Did you install Java Access Bridge into the correct Java runtime?

It renders "JFrame window name" and that's about it. None of the text in the Panel is rendered, and nothing in my programs' output JEditorPane (set for HTML) is rendered either!

But your web page renders fine, so I know I've got to be doing something simple...

Web page rendering is very separate from this. I'm not sure how accessible your HTML pane will be with screen readers without special support. However, normal text fields, etc. should read just fine.

And why won't Java Control Panel talk to me! Is mine too old? I'm running (ver command) XP 5.1.2600 service pack 2, is that the issue?

Windows XP sp2 is fine. As I noted above, if Java Control Panel won't read, something is not set up correctly on your system. I think the Java Access Bridge comes with some testing tools, so you might want to check those out.

[nvaccessAuto]

Comment 4 by goyette.mike (in reply to comment 3) on 2008-09-11 16:04 Well, spit. It looks like I'm violating the dual boot rules for access bridge. None of the files landed where they they said they should be (the installer scanned my system and made the wrong decision, it would seem).

I'll sort all this out today. And while I'm at it, I'll try using my linux server as a client. At least with linux, I understand what's going on.

Thanks for your help, sir (or madam)! Once more into the breach.

(it seems I set up an earlier version of access bridge as well when I first read the IBM guidelines on accessability, when I first started this project.... dll file dated 06/23/2006)

[nvaccessAuto]

Comment 5 by mdcurran on 2008-11-17 22:34 Did Java access bridge ever end up working?

[nvaccessAuto]

Comment 6 by jteh on 2008-12-05 02:58 Please reopen if problem persists. Changes: Added labels: worksforme State: closed