OpenOffice.org and ODF Accessibility, ABI Workshop 2006

transcript

1OpenOffice.org and ODF Accessibility

AbI-Kongress2008-04-09, Berlin

OpenOffice.org & ODF AccessibilityMalte TimmermannTechnical ArchitectStarOffice/OpenOffice.orgSun Microsystems

About the Speaker

• Technical Architect in StarOffice/OpenOffice.org Development

• Working on StarOffice since 1991> Accessibility> Security> Sun ODF Plugin for MS Office> Architecture and Performance> Past: EditEngine, VCL, Help System, BasicIDE, ...

• Member of the OASIS OpenDocument Accessibility Subcommittee

• http://blogs.sun.com/malte

Agenda

• What is StarOffice / OpenOffice.org?• Accessibility Features• Assistive Technology• OpenDocument Format (ODF)• OASIS OpenDocument Accessibility SC• Accessible Document Creation• Q&A

What is StarOffice / OpenOffice.org?

• Integrated productivity suite> Text Processor> Spreadsheet> Drawing & Presentation > Database> Formula Editor & Chart Module

• Programmability> Basic interpreter and Basic IDE> Object Model (UNO)

> Create components in Basic, C++, JAVA or Python, ...> OpenOffice.org Software Development Kit (SDK)

> Netbeans Plugin for easy extensions development

• Multi Platform> Windows, Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X, ...

• Interoperable with MS Office> Can read and write MS Office files> Comparable feature set

• Native document format is ODF (OpenDocument Format)

• Create (accessible) PDF files> Tagged PDF, TOC, Hyperlinks, Controls> PDF/A-1, long-term archiving of electronic documents

• Support for different languages> Including CJK and CTL languages> Support for Right to Left and Vertical Writing

• Digital Signatures> W3C DSig - XML based, open standard

• OpenOffice.org is Open Source!> The license is LGPL

• OpenOffice.org was created from StarOffice> Sun made the code base of StarOffice available as

OpenOffice.org in 2001, with ~5 Million lines of code> ~90% of current OpenOffice.org development still done by Sun

• Nowadays, StarOffice is simply the Sun branded and supported version of OpenOffice.org, with some extras

• StarOffice extras> Licensed software

> Spell checker and thesaurus> Database engine (Adabas D)> High quality fonts, for better multi platform support> Extra document filters

> Documentation, Templates and Clip Art> StarOffice includes support

> Optional: Sun's Enterprise Service Support with with 24/7, escalations and migration services

• Free version of StarOffice for Teachers and Students

Demonstration

• StarOffice / OpenOffice.org> Quick overview

Accessibility

• People with disabilities should be able to work with OpenOffice.org

• Access for people with disabilities must be comparable like for people without disabilities

Accessibility Features

• Keyboard Navigation• Colors and Fonts• Documentation• Accessibility Features• Assistive Technology

Keyboard Navigation

• All features must be usable via the keyboard!> Some users cannot use a mouse

If they can't access every function without one, productivity may suffer, or the application might be unusable

> Some users cannot see the screenBut they still have a good mental picture of what's there, so require consistent, reliable keyboard navigation to get around

• Many users find it faster to use the keyboard• Keyboard Accessibility improves the user experience for

everyone, not just for those with special needs!

Colors & Fonts

• Adapt to the color schemes and contrast display settings of the operating system

• Offer additional settings for colors which are not specified in any system color schemes

• Support for High Contrast and Large Fonts> Document content might be rendered differently> OpenOffice.org User Interface uses the default system font, but

the user can choose a different one

Documentation

• Documentation accessible, available in HTML and PDF format

• The help system is accessible• Templates and sample documents follow rules for

accessible document creation

Accessibility Features

• Read-Only cursor> Makes it much easier to navigate in read only documents> Text selection with keyboard is possible

• Theming for help viewer• Animations for images and text can be switched off• “Automatic Font Color” as the default for new documents

> To make sure text is readable regardless of the color theming• Force Automatic Font Color for screen display

> Needed for documents which do not use automatic font color

Demonstration

• StarOffice / OpenOffice.org> Scheming, Fonts and Colors> Accessibility Options and Features

Assistive Technology

• Screen Readers> Use speech or refreshable Braille to "read" the contents of the

screen• Screen Magnifiers

> Magnify the portion of the screen that the user is interacting with> Tracking mouse movement, keyboard focus and text entry

• Onscreen Keyboards> Use the mouse or a simple switch to enter text and to control the

application

Assistive Technology

• Voice Control> Use speech to control the application and to dictate the

document content• Keyboard/Mouse Enhancement Utilities

> Key debouncing, sticky keys, repeat delay/rate• Alternate Input/Output Devices

> Eye-gaze, simple switches, braille devices, alternate mice

OpenOffice.org Accessibility API

• To actively support Assistive Technology (AT)> AT shouldn't have to guess something or to patch the system

> Patching OS and video drivers still bad, but needed, practice on Windows, because of a missing Accessibility framework

> Standardization and broader adoption of IAccessible2 should fill this gap

> With standard Accessibility APIs, AT doesn't have to “special case” for certain applications> When an AT supports one Office suite via that API, it automatically has

support for other Office suites implementing that API> Customizations for certain applications are only needed for

convenience features or for improving efficiency of certain work flows

OpenOffice.org Accessibility API

• Derived from Java and GNOME Accessibility> To support multiple platforms

• Used for UI and for document representation> Made enhancements for exposing the document content, which

also led to improvements in Java and GNOME APIs> OpenOffice.org is probably the first application that fully

exposes the document content and layout via Accessibility API• Bridged to Java Accessibility and GNOME ATK

> AT doesn't have to know anything about OpenOffice.org or about that specific Accessibility API

> Currently working on support for the Mac OS X Accessibility Framework, and on IAaccessible2 for Windows

AT Support for OpenOffice.org

• GNOME> Good support for OOo because of GNOME's

well defined Accessibility framework> Orca (Screen Reader and Magnifier) and GOK (On Screen

Keyboard). All Open Source!• Windows

> Most AT Vendors don't care much about support for OOo :(> Some have limited support for OOo through the Java Access

Bridge> No AT vendor supports the OOo Accessibility API directly> Overall status on Windows: AT support for OOo is not sufficient> This should change with IAccessible2 in OOo 3.x

Demonstrations

• Windows Screen Reader and Magnifier (ZoomText)• GNOME Screen Reader and Magnifier (Orca)• GNOME Onscreen Keyboard (GOK)• Dasher

> Text entry alternative, optimized for eye-gaze users

OpenDocument Format (ODF)

• Open Document Format for Office Applications> Or simply OpenDocument or ODF

• Open, not proprietary, ISO standard> Defined in an open and transparent process

> Mailing lists are open to the public> Individual members allowed> Public meeting agendas and minutes> Received public comments are publicly visible

• Reuse of Established Standards> SVG, MathML, XForms, XLS:FO, XLink, SMIL, ...

• Public Standard: OASIS and ISO/IEC 26300

ISO/IEC 26300, May 2006

OpenDocument Format (ODF)

• Supported from multiple applications, on multiple platforms> Sun StarOffice, OpenOffice.org, IBM Lotus Notes and Symphony, Google

Docs & Spreadsheets, KOffice, TextMaker, AbiWord, Gnumeric> Microsoft Office via plug-ins, e.g. Sun ODF Plugin for MS Office

> Windows, Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X, OS, FreeBSD, OS/2, Symbian, PalmOS, ...

> OASIS ODF TC and ODF Adoption TC members include Adobe, IBM, Intel, Novell, Oracle, Sun, ...

> ODF Alliance: More than 370 members in less than 12 month• Gartner says:

> „By 2010, ODF document exchange will be required by 50 percent of government and 20 percent of commercial organizations (0.7 probability).”http://www.gartner.com/resources/140100/140101/iso_approval_of_oasis_opendo_140101.pdf

OASIS OpenDocument Accessibility SC

• Statement of purpose> Ongoing review of the OpenDocument specification for accessibility, both

to discover potential accessibility issues and to improve the usability and functionality of creating, reading, and editing office documents for people with disabilities.

> To provide accessibility related feedback to the OpenDocument Technical Committee and implementors of the OpenDocument specification.

• Deliverables> Proposals for accessibility enhancements to the OpenDocument

specification.> Accessibility related guidelines for OpenDocument implementors and

users.

Accessible Document Creation

• Accessibility capabilities and features alone are not enough

• Authors of documents must make sure to help for good accessibility!

• W3C Web Accessibility Initiative> Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

> Version 1 (1999) concentrated on HTML> Version 2 (public working draft) is more general

• Some simple rules> Create well structured content

> Use named styles ( “Heading 1”, ... ) instead of font changes> Mark table column and row headers> For forms, use logical tab order

> Don't rely on color alone> Ensure that information conveyed with colors is also available without

color> Use luminosity contrast ratio> Provide text alternatives for all non-text content

> Each image and each object should have a (unique) name and a description

> Provide names and descriptions for hyper links

• Make sure to keep you documents as accessible as possible> When exporting documents to an other portable format, use

HTML or PDF> There is more AT support for browsers than for PDF viewers> Latest versions of Adobe Reader are better accessible now, including

Self-Voicing on Windows and Linux> When using OpenOffice.org to create PDF files, make sure to

create “Tagged PDF”> When using Adobe Acrobat to create PDF files, also make sure

to not lock out AT by setting security restrictions

Malte.Timmermann@sun.comblogs.sun.com/Malte

OpenOffice.org Accessibilityhttp://www.openoffice.org/AccessOASIS OpenDocument Format

http://www.oasis-open.orgW3C Web Accessibility Initiative

http://www.w3.org/WAI

OpenOffice.org & ODF AccessibilityMalte TimmermannMalte.Timmermann@sun.com http://blogs.sun.com/malte