Re: configuring libreoffice for accessibility

Hello Don,

Some configuration is necessary, but:
1) I don't know how easy they are to undertake with a screen reader, and
2) the benefit may not be what you expect.

My comment about the benefit of the configuration is that LibreOffice 
accessibility on Windows relies on Java Accessibility, which is not 
very well supported by screen readers. For better results, 
LibreOffice would need a different accessibility system called 
IAccessible2, but as long as OpenOffice.org has not integrated this, 
LibreOffice can't or won't integrate IAccessible2 either (in order to 
avoid duplication of the same work).

Now to the configuration:
1. First, you need Java and the Java Access Bridge, which you already 
have. However, if there is more than one Java Runtime Environment on 
your machine, you need to make sure that the Access Bridge is 
installed in the Runtime used by LibreOffice, or in all your Java 
Runtime environments. You can check which Runtime LibreOffice is 
using by going to the Options dialog (go to Tools menu, then Options) 
and navigating to the Java pane; you need to wait a few seconds while 
LibreOffice fetches the info about the available runtimes. The list 
of runtimes also says if the Access Bridge is installed in them. (If 
the text next to the vendor and version info says: "with 
accessibility support", then the runtime has the Access Bridge.)
2. After checking the runtimes and the Access Bridge, you need go to 
"Accessibility" in the Options dialog (it is the item above or before 
Java). The Accessibility pane contains a checkbox that says: "Support 
assistive technology tools (restart required)". You need to check 
this and restart LibreOffice.

However, because of the lacking support for Java Accessibility in 
screen readers, some people use IBM Lotus Symphony instead. Lotus 
Symphony uses IAccessible2 instead of Java Accessibility; it is free 
but not open source.
Some people have compared JAWS and NVDA for accessing LibreOffice and 
found NVDA somewhat better. You can download NVDA for free; if you 
use the portable version, you can even run it from a USB stick or 
your hard disk without an installation procedure (some unpacking is 
needed, but nothing more).

I hope this helps.

Best regards,

Christophe

At 19:45 8-2-2012, Don Raikes wrote:
>I ma using jaws 13.0.638 (beta), windows7 64-bit jdk 1.7.0U02 with 
>accessbridge 2.0.2, and I downloaded and installed libreoffice 3.4.5 yesterday.
>
>After the installation completed, I tried using the libreoffice calc 
>program but jaws didn't read anything in the spreadsheet. I couldn't 
>even tell that I was in a spreadsheet.
>
>Also jaws does not seem to be reading the menus properly, nor is it 
>reading any of the buttons in the tools -> options dialog.
>
>Are there any things I need to do to configure libreoffice for accessibility?

-- 
Christophe Strobbe
K.U.Leuven - Dept. of Electrical Engineering - SCD
Research Group on Document Architectures
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http://www.docarch.be/
Twitter:  <at> RabelaisA11y
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