New Accessibility Tools Framework Project at Eclipse.org
Accessibility experts from the OASIS ODF Accessibility Sub Committee have established an approved project at Eclipse.org to develop an 'Accessibility Tools Framework'. This new open source project will be established by a significant code contribution from IBM. For example, an accessibility evaluation tool for ODF documents will be open sourced. This follows IBM's contribution of the iAccessible2 API to the Free Standards Group, now part of the new Linux Foundation.
IBM will make an initial code contribution that will encompass the core functionality for the ACTF project including:
- Framework components
- Extensible validation engine and validation manager
- Blind visualization engine
- Image simulation engine
- Reusable view components
- Infrastructure middleware
- Exemplary implementations
- Accessibility API probe tool implementation
- Accessibility check tool implementation
- Alternative interface implementation for multimedia content
- Alternative interface implementation for ODF documents
Project Goal
The ACTF will provide an extensible framework and exemplary accessibility tools. The framework will allow users/developers to build and use various types of accessibility tools, such as compliance validation tools, assistive technology simulation tools, usability visualization tools, unit-testing tools, alternative interfaces for people with disabilities, and so on. These tools will be integrated into a single tooling environment on top of the Eclipse framework, and collaborate with each other to provide a comprehensive development environment. The framework will also include various types of middleware components for building accessibility-related tools as plugins.
