bobby 3.0 beta accessability

Hi,

I am part of a group of people in Denmark that is working on testing
public web sites for accessability. The test will be done by using
the new Bobby 3.0 program. Because we have to test many different
pages it is a good idea to use the application version of Bobby instead
of the online version. I downloaded the new beta of version 3 Friday,
but after having worked with it for some time I find it hard and
maybe even impossible to use when you are also using a screen reader.

To be more specific I am using Jaws for Windows version 3.2 on
computer running Windows98, this means obviously that I have
installed the matching version of Bobby on the computer.

It was possible to install the program. The dialogues could be read
and I could also move among the different choices using the tabulator
key as you would expect to be able to. I could not however activate
the object I was at by using the "enter" key, instead I had to use
mouse keys to do this. When the installation was completed I tried to
work with the program but without success. I could read the description on
how to set the different options to perform a check of a web page, but could not find the actual
options, neither in the program window or in the menu. Actually I
could not access a menu, only the control menu with close,
minimize, maximize, and restore options. I cannot find any regular
menues but I think they are actually there. In the next week I will
see if I can get more results with this program with sighted
assistance. 

I would find it very interesting if other screen reader users who are 
using other programs than JFW, would try to see how other screen
reader packages can access this program. 

I will send this mail to the Java access list, and also to the people
at CAST. I hope that more can be done to make pure Java applications
accessable for users of current assistive technology, because it
will take some time until we have pure Java technologies available. 

Claus Thøgersen

Received on Sunday, 2 August 1998 06:40:29 UTC