Java Foundation Classes in a Nutshell

CHAPTER 22

Thejavax.accessibility Package

The javax.accessibility package contains classes and interfaces that define the con-

tract between an accessible application and an assistive technology, such as a

scr een reader for the vision impaired. All accessible GUI components implement

the Accessible inter face and must be able to retur nanAccessibleContext object. Acces-

sibleContext is the main entry point for an assistive technology to obtain information

about the component. The methods of AccessibleContext retur n instances of many of

the other classes and interfaces in this package. Figure 22-1 shows the class hierar-

chy of this package, which is new in Java 1.2.

Typically, only GUI component developers and developers of assistive technolo-

gies need to use this package. Chapter 3, Swing Programming Topics, contains an

overview of accessibility.

Accessible Ja va 1.2

javax.accessibility accessible

This interface is the primary point of interaction between assistive technologies and

accessible objects. All accessible objects implement the getAccessibleContext() method of

this interface, providing a way for an assistive technology to obtain an AccessibleContext

object that describes the accessible object. Component developers should implement

this interface for their components, but application developers should never have to

use it.

public abstract interface Accessible {

// Public Instance Methods ...