lordjeffFeb 18, 2025
Matt Campbell

I wonder who might be willing to fund an overhaul of Java accessibility on Windows, particularly for frameworks that run on top of AWT like Swing and the desktop version of Jetpack Compose. The old Java Access Bridge for Windows was necessary back when there was nothing but Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA). But today, Java should implement UI Automation.

The decrepit state of Java accessibility on Windows has real consequences for users. https://mindly.social/@valiant8086/114022284080096052

valiant8086 (@[email protected])

It's too far back in my timeline, but I just installed blip, a free file transferring application on Windows. It works on other platforms too. The link I used was on a blog post where they discussed how it worked with Voiceover on the Mac. On windows? 100 percent inaccessible. I can't navigate anything at all. I pushed enter and it took me to a license agreement page. That's all I can get it to do. What a blah. I imagine it works fine on Android. How is there anything on Windows that is just 0 navigation at all. I can't move the navigator object in NVDA or anything. Absolutely nothing, like it's a video game. That's pretty rare to find something that bad.

Mindly.Social
Feb 18, 2025 at 2:57amWeb
Show threadMatt CampbellFeb 18, 2025
If I were to take on this project, I would probably use my own AccessKit (https://accesskit.dev/) as a basis for a new Java-to-native accessibility bridge, at least on Windows. That would save the effort of doing a new ground-up UI Automation implementation. Then we could see how AccessKit compares to the existing Java accessibility implementations on macOS and Linux. Judging by the post I just linked, Java accessibility seems to be in better shape on macOS than on Windows.
AccessKit

Accessibility infrastructure for UI toolkits

AccessKit
Show threadvaliant8086Feb 18, 2025
@matt I know that a year or two ago, an application called sdr trunk for controling software defined radios and being able to use them to create something like a police scanner, had accessibility for certain parts but one particular screen was pretty much 0 accessibility. I contacted the dev for that too and they issued an update where they said they just toggled a setting for their java environment. It's now usable, or at least it became that way and It's been a while since I looked at it. And, wasn't Java Swing or something like that accessible and didn't use the access bridge? If so that could be an example for everyone to use or something I guess.
Show threadLukáš TyrychtrFeb 18, 2025
@pvagner @matt Linux does not seem in a good state either. On Archlinux, I was not able to make say, Ghidra talk, even that the java ATK bridge was installed and seemingly even configured to be loaded.
Show threadthe esoteric programmerFeb 18, 2025
@tyrylu @pvagner @matt I never had any success with any java application, so yeah, that's that