Re: Accessible GUI Applications in Perl

[Anonymous Monk]

For creating accessible GUIs with perl there are 2 modules that can be used: Win32::GUI and WxPerl. Tk-based GUIs are not accessible at all and Gtk2 are not accessible at least under Windows. Win32::GUI can be used only under Windows, while WxPerl is portable and it offers many more features: more widgets and the possibility to use UTF-8. The most important WxPerl widgets are very accessible for Jaws and I guess for other screen readers also, because just as Win32::GUI and Java SWT, WxPerl uses the native widgets of the OS. Java SWING GUIs can be made accessible if using Java Access Bridge, but the accessibility in that case is poor, so SWING is not recommended. I've made a dictionary using WxPerl that you can download and test and its source code is also available at: http://www.tranzactiibursiere.ro/maestro (I developed it while learning WxPerl, so some methods might not be the best ones.)

[smiffy]

Thanks for this valuable insight. You have confirmed for me that Wx is probably the right Perl/GUI route for me to pursue. If it works with JAWS on Windows, it certainly should work with other ATs, as they would all be using the same MS accessibility API.

I am very interested to that Java/SWING isn't as accessible as is perhaps made out. It would be so nice if it transpired that it was easier to code accessible GUI applications in Perl than in Java. (Market penetration would still be an issue - most computers ship with a JVM, but I haven't seen too many non-UNIX systems that ship with Perl :-(

[szabgab]

If you are talking about Windows machines then talk to Adam Kennedy and tell him you want Portable Chocolate Perl now!

That should already include Wx out of the box so it will be easy to add you application. Then you zip it up again and distribute that to your clients.