 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
The following points match the relevant parts of Section 508
of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act against the IST's Motif
Accessibility Solution. The relevant section is Part 1194
Subpart B - Technical Standards paragraph 1194.21.
- When software is designed to run on a system that has a
keyboard, product functions shall be executable from a
keyboard where the function itself or the result of performing
a function can be discerned textually.
The majority of the applications being targeted by IST's Motif
Accessibility Solution have been designed for a system with a
keyboard. IST's Motif Accessibility Solution offers the
ability to specify mnemonics and accelerators for all widgets.
This gives the user direct keyboard navigation. Users could
also specify tab groups in order to facilitate general
keyboard navigation.
- Applications shall not disrupt or disable activated
features of other products that are identified as
accessibility features, where those features are developed and
documented according to industry standards. Applications also
shall not disrupt or disable activated features of any
operating system that are identified as accessibility features
where the application programming interface for those
accessibility features has been documented by the manufacturer
of the operating system and is available to the product
developer.
IST's Motif Accessibility Solution can trap known
accessibility key sequences and prevent their being passed to
widgets.
- A well-defined on-screen indication of the current
focus shall be provided that moves among interactive interface
elements as the input focus changes. The focus shall be
programmatically exposed so that assistive technology can
track focus and focus changes.
This is a key strength of IST's Motif Accessibility Solution.
It provides control of the visual feedback of the current
focus in the following ways:
- Font and size - can be changed to any font in any size.
- Color - can be changed to any color.
- Tooltips - provide a textual feedback of the current focus widget.
- Long and short descriptions - provide more detailed textual information.
- Audio file - makes this accessible to external devices.
- Border - drawing areas and scrolled areas have borders
added.
In addition, the widget with the current focus can be
interrogated thereby making it "programmatically exposed".
- Sufficient information about a user interface element
including the identity, operation and state of the element
shall be available to assistive technology. When an image
represents a program element, the information conveyed by the
image must also be available in text.
IST's Motif Accessibility Solution is able to add tooltips,
long and short descriptions and audio filenames to widgets.
This addresses the point concerning images and
other widgets. IST's Motif Accessibility Solution is able to
access all information about the current focus widget and make
it accessible to assistive technologies.
- When bitmap images are used to identify controls,
status indicators, or other programmatic elements, the meaning
assigned to those images shall be consistent throughout an
application's performance.
This should be added to an accessibility checklist for
application programmers.
- Textual information shall be provided through operating
system functions for displaying text. The minimum information
that shall be made available is text content, text input caret
location, and text attributes.
IST's Motif Accessibility Solution has access to the text set
on a widget and the textual contents of a widget. IST's Motif
Accessibility Solution provides access to all information on a
widget.
- Applications shall not override user selected contrast
and color selections and other individual display
attributes.
IST's Motif Accessibility Solution offers very good support
for this requirement. Using the Application Inspector, users
can configure the font, size and color of all user interface
widgets in an application. Enough flexibility is provided so
that any specified preferences can be system-wide or specific
to individual applications or even individual widgets. IST's
Motif Accessibility Solution also offers the option to
configure multi-click intervals, key-click and bell volumes
and bell duration as user preferences for individual
applications or system-wide.
- When animation is displayed, the information shall be
displayable in at least one non-animated presentation mode at
the option of the user.
IST's Motif Accessibility Solution offers the ability to
display textual information about any widget, whether it is
animated or not. Textual information is provided in the form
of tooltip help and long and short descriptions. Users can
also supply an audio filename which can then be accessed by a
screen reader.
- Color coding shall not be used as the only means of
conveying information, indicating an action, prompting a
response, or distinguishing a visual element.
IST's Motif Accessibility Solution offers the ability to add
tooltip labels to all user interface widgets. This would
enable an alternative to color to be available to the user and
to assistive technologies. In addition, it is also possible
to add long and short descriptions and audio filenames. Being
able to group widgets greatly helps with this issue.
- When a product permits a user to adjust color and
contrast settings, a variety of color selections capable of
producing a range of contrast levels shall be provided.
IST's Motif Accessibility Solution does provide a lot of
control over the foreground and background colors of all
widgets in an application. Users can specify that the colors
are made darker or brighter and specify a percentage or they
can set specific colors.
- Software shall not use flashing or blinking text,
objects, or other elements having a flash or blink frequency
greater than 2 Hz and lower than 55 Hz.
This is not relevant to Motif. It should be included in an
accessibility checklist for application programmers.
- When electronic forms are used, the form shall allow
people using assistive technology to access the information,
field elements, and functionality required for completion and
submission of the form, including all directions and cues.
IST's Motif Accessibility Solution offers the ability to add
tooltip help to all widgets, along with a long and short
description and an audio filename. This would help users
navigating around a form. There are a number of keyboard and
navigation options which would help with all types of user
interface. Grouping widgets together helps assistive
technologies (such as screen readers) when they need to know
which labels go with which controls. Such information is
either calculated dynamically by examining the positions of
widgets relative to one another and how they are related in
terms of form attachments or is specified by the user in the
Application Inspector.
|
|
|
|
|
