It's a bold new MUDding point of view.
The other day I was searching around Google-ville for references to JamochaMUD. I do this from time to time with stuff because honestly, you never know what you'll come across (for good or evil).
I came across a group called Mac Visionaries where someone was talking about using JamochaMUD, but couldn't access the menus (weren't sure if it had any), and couldn't navigate the main connector screen.
I thought this was a bit odd, but folks on the list were talking about the newest release of OS X and maybe maybe compliance to Java standards wasn't good enough to do the cross-platform thing properly.
It was only after a bit of correspondence with the fellow that I put two and two together. JamochaMUD looks and works just fine on the Mac. It does not "just fine" on the Mac if you are using a screen reader, as the folks in Mac Visionaries are doing!
So, never one to not push my own products, I decided that I was going to tackle this accessibility issue. After all, I use standard components for most of JamochaMUD, how hard could it be to make it work like other accessible programs?
Apparently with Java it isn't all that bad... it has it's own accessibility API, and at the most basic level to make the software usable I just need to fill in some accessibility information for all the visual objects.
I do have to admit it is pretty exciting to know that something you've created to work for people in ways that you never thought, and now that I'm aware of it I can keep the accessibility-motif going with-out much work at all.
That's my win-win situation for today!
I came across a group called Mac Visionaries where someone was talking about using JamochaMUD, but couldn't access the menus (weren't sure if it had any), and couldn't navigate the main connector screen.
I thought this was a bit odd, but folks on the list were talking about the newest release of OS X and maybe maybe compliance to Java standards wasn't good enough to do the cross-platform thing properly.
It was only after a bit of correspondence with the fellow that I put two and two together. JamochaMUD looks and works just fine on the Mac. It does not "just fine" on the Mac if you are using a screen reader, as the folks in Mac Visionaries are doing!
So, never one to not push my own products, I decided that I was going to tackle this accessibility issue. After all, I use standard components for most of JamochaMUD, how hard could it be to make it work like other accessible programs?
Apparently with Java it isn't all that bad... it has it's own accessibility API, and at the most basic level to make the software usable I just need to fill in some accessibility information for all the visual objects.
I do have to admit it is pretty exciting to know that something you've created to work for people in ways that you never thought, and now that I'm aware of it I can keep the accessibility-motif going with-out much work at all.
That's my win-win situation for today!