Accessibility Notes

The performance of a screen reader, when used in conjunction with this product, is subject to the actual functionality and limitations of the chosen screen reader as well as the actual functionality and limitations of the underlying operating environment and its user interface.

How to Setup ConsoleOne for Accessibility

ConsoleOne and all snap-ins have been tested for compatibility with the JAWS for Windows screen reader version 3.7 and version 4.0. JAWS for Windows is developed by Henter-Joyce, a division of Freedom Scientific. See www.hj.com for more details.

The Java Access Bridge 1.0.1, a product of Sun Microsystems, must also be implemented in order to use JAWS for Windows to provide accessibility with Java-based applications such as the ConsoleOne application. This product is available as a free download from http://java.sun.com/products/accessbridge/. Once you have downloaded the Java Access Bridge ZIP file, you can install it by placing the following 5 files into the specified location on your workstation.

Add C:\NOVELL\CONSOLEONE\1.2\JRE\BIN to the system path.

We recommend that you set the number of colors in the Display control panel to 256. This recommendation may not be necessary for some versions of Microsoft Windows or for some video cards. See the JAWS Technical Support Web site for additional details.

Tips For Using ConsoleOne With A Keyboard and the JAWS for Windows Reader

The ConsoleOne application window has three sections. Across the top of the window is a row of buttons called the tool bar. Each button represents a function. Beneath the tool bar, the window is split into a left pane and a right pane. By default, the left pane contains the tree view and the right pane contains the Console view. Occasionally, the Console view is replaced with other views unique to the snap-in or the function you request.

While focus is on the ConsoleOne application window, you can use the tab key to cycle among these three sections. If you are in the tree view, the tab key takes you to the first element in the Console view. Pressing tab from anywhere in the Console view takes you to the left-most button on the button bar. Subsequent tabs proceed through the buttons one at a time from left to right. Pressing tab while on the right-most button moves to the tree view. Shift-tab reverses that sequence.

ConsoleOne Menus

The basic menus in ConsoleOne are File, Edit, View, Tools, and Help. From anywhere in the ConsoleOne Application Window, you can access the menus by pressing Alt- and the first letter of the menu name. The list of menus and options within each menu will change based on which snap-ins are installed, and which objects are selected.

While the focus is in the main menu, the left and right arrow keys cycle from one menu to the next, and the up and down arrow keys cycle through the enabled menu options.

If the current menu option has a sub-menu, pressing the right arrow key expands it.

The Tree View

The Tree view provides a hierarchical view of the various eDirectory trees, their containers, and sub-containers. At the top of the hierarchy is an element named My World. When this element is opened (which it is when ConsoleOne first starts), it exposes an element named NDS. Within NDS are the various trees to which you are authenticated.

As you use the up and down arrow keys, the focus moves through the container objects in the tree one at a time. The JAWS reader will speak the name of each object and its level. My World is level one, NDS is level two. Trees within NDS are level three, and so forth. Pressing the right arrow key while on a closed container will open it, listing below the containers within it. Only containers are shown in the tree view. Pressing the left arrow key while on an open container closes the container and collapses the list of containers that are within it.

If you happen to collapse everything back to My World, you will not be able to open it with the right arrow key. Instead, press F5 to refresh the tree view. This opens the My World object and exposes the NDS object within it.

Each container has zero or more sub-containers, and zero or more leaf objects. As you move through the list of containers in the Tree view, the objects within each container, both sub-containers and leaf objects, are displayed in the Console view. To see these objects, select a container, then press the tab key to move to the Console view.

The Console View

The Console view contains all containers and leaf objects found within the selected container. The objects are typically sorted by object type (users, groups, servers), and alphabetically by object name within each type. The objects are displayed in columns. The first object is at the top of the first column. The next object is beneath it, and so on. If there are more objects than fit in one vertical column of the view, the next object appears at the top of the next column. The number of objects in the column depends upon how large the window is.

The up and down arrow keys take you through the list sequentially from first to last. The left and right arrow keys move from one column to the next. Page up and Page down move through the list one screen at a time. Home takes you to the first object in the container, and End selects the last object in the container.

Note that the JAWS reader deliberately disables the keyboard auto-repeat function. Holding down the down arrow key, for instance, will move one object. To go to the next object, you need to release the key and press it again.

As you move through the list in the Console View, the JAWS reader speaks the name of the object, and the object type. While an object is thus selected, you can perform operations on the object. The operations allowed are based on the object type and your rights. The primary operation is to open the object and to edit its properties. Press Enter to bring up the property book for the current object.

Property Books

A Property Book is a dialog box used to display and modify all the properties or attributes of an object. Since objects typically have a large number of properties, the property book is organized into sections with a tab for each section. The tabs appear in a row across the top of the property book. Each tab has a name.

Each tab has one or more panels. The panels are presented in the property book just below the row of tabs. Each panel has one or more controls. Some of the typical controls include a text edit field, a check box, a button and a combo box. Every panel also has a name.

When a tab has more than one panel associate with it, the list of panels appears like a drop down menu on the tab.

When a property book is first opened, the focus is on the left-most tab. You can cycle through the list of tabs using the left and right arrow keys. JAWS speaks the name of the tab as it receives focus. If the tab has a list of panels, you can open the list by pressing the space bar while the focus is on the tab. Pressing the up and down arrow keys cycles through the list of panels associated with the current tab. JAWS speaks the name of the panel as you arrow to it.

Once you get to the panel you want to edit, press the tab key to move focus to the first control on that panel. When focus is on a control, the JAWS reader speaks the label for the control, the type of control it is, the current setting for the control, and whether the control is enabled or disabled. JAWS will say "edit" if the control is enabled, or "non-edit" if it is disabled. Press the tab key to move focus to the next control, or press shift-tab to move focus to the previous control.

Controls in ConsoleOne behave much the same way in ConsoleOne as they do in any other application. There are, however, a few differences. The following is information about some unfamiliar behaviors.

Using Buttons
When you tab to a button, the inclination is to press Enter to perform the button's function. However, the Java convention is to press the space bar to click the button. Often, the Enter key will perform the default function of the panel or dialog box instead of the function of the current button.

Check Boxes
Check boxes have two states: checked and unchecked. To change the state of the current check box ,press the space bar. If the check box acquires focus by pressing the tab key, the JAWS reader will accurately tell you the current state and when you toggle the state it will accurately tell you the new state. However, if you use a mnemonic to access a check box, things get more complicated. The mnemonic causes two things to occur. First, focus moves to the check box control, and then the state is toggled. In this situation, the JAWS reader reports the state at the time focus is acquired. This can be confusing. Novell recommends against using mnemonics to access check boxes when you rely on the JAWS reader to know what is happening.

Multi-valued Edit Fields
In ConsoleOne, there are numerous multi-valued edit fields. When you tab to such a field, the JAWS reader speaks all of the values in the field. To edit any of those values, open the list by tabbing to the Browse button to the right of the field and pressing the space bar. The list of values is presented. While the list is open, use the up and down arrow keys to move through the elements of the list. Pressing the Tab key while the list is open does nothing. To close the list, press the Escape key, then press Tab to move to the next field.

Accessibility Limitations of the Underlying Operating Environment

While Novell has performed engineering and testing to ensure its products are accessible, the Windows operating system, the Java Virtual Machine, the Java Access Bridge, and the JAWS for Windows screen reader impose various functional limitations that Novell is unable to completely work around.. These functional limitations may reduce the level of accessibility that an end user may experience when using ConsoleOne with a screen reader. Known functional limitations include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. As you use the arrow keys to move from character to character in a text edit field, the JAWS reader does not speak the character you move across, making it difficult to know where the insertion point is.
2. Corrected in JAWS 4.0. Occasionally when you tab to a field, the JAWS reader will speak the title of the current window or dialog box instead of speaking the information about that field. When this happens, you can change the focus (press Tab), then come back to the current field (press Shift-Tab) and it will correctly speak the information.
3. Occasionally, the JAWS reader will unexpectedly repeat information.
4. Various information in ConsoleOne is presented using standard static text labels (as is normal and common for Java applications), but JAWS doesn't read them.
5. Often, the JAWS reader does not speak the message of an alert or other message box.. If you press Alt-Tab to switch to another application, then press Alt-Tab to return to ConsoleOne, the message will be spoken.
6. When you are prompted to enter a password, the JAWS reader speaks the characters of the password as you type rather than saying "asterisk."
7. Some snap-ins present a slider control. The JAWS reader crashes when you manipulate the slider.
8. The Jaws screen reader is unable to speak information presented by JavaHelp. If you get into JavaHelp, use Alt-F4 to close the help window and return to the application. There is a product from IBM named the Self Voicing Kit that is capable of reading JavaHelp. Information regarding the IBM Self Voicing Kit can be found at http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/svk.
9. Corrected in JAWS 4.0. In various text fields, the JAWS reader does not speak text following a period or an exclamation point. For example, if the field contains "P.O. Box 123," the JAWS reader would say "P.O."
10. When you open or save a file, the Java File Chooser dialog box appears. This dialog box is not accessible.
11. Corrected in JAWS 4.0. When using scrolling lists, the JAWS reader says "unavailable" when you press the arrow key (up or down), causing the list to scroll. For example, select "New Object." A dialog box appears with a list of all possible object types. Press the down arrow to move through the list. Each object type is read until you press the down arrow while on the last visible entry. The JAWS reader says "unavailable," then the list scrolls, exposing the next item in the list.
12. Corrected in JAWS 4.0. The JAWS reader might crash when ConsoleOne is exited. It seems to crash less frequently when you patiently wait for it to finish speaking before proceeding to do something else.

Accessibility Limitations of the Novell ConsoleOne Application

1. If you open multiple property books simultaneously, there is no keyboard mechanism for switching among multiple property books, or for switching between a property book and the ConsoleOne window. This problem can be avoided by opening only one property book at a time.
2. In typical tool bar usage, the user of ConsoleOne would select an object or a container, then click a button on the tool bar to perform an operation on that object. This doesn't work while using the keyboard because focus is lost when you tab to the tool bar. For most tool bar operations, there is a menu equivalent. Focus can be maintained while selecting an operation from the menu.
3. Various buttons and text edit fields are not correctly read by the JAWS reader. The reader will say "Button" but  not always read the button label.
4. The Effective Rights panel is not accessible.The Effective Rights panel is used to indicate the rights a specific trustee has for each property of the current object. When you select a property, JAWS does not read the rights the selected trustee has for that property.
5. In various instances, it is important to know the results of the operation. For example, when you authenticate to a tree, you would like to have the screen reader announce the results. The results of various operations such as this are not announced by the JAWS reader.
6. In the tree view, the JAWS reader will speak the object name, but not the object type.
7. After a search operation, you can use the keyboard to peruse the list of objects found. The JAWS reader speaks the object name, but not the context where it was found.
8. The Advanced Find dialog box is not accessible. Advanced Find allows you to create a specific query based on the values of any attributes in an object. The format of the query is an attribute name, a relational operator, and a value. There can be several of these query specifications with Boolean operators between each one. Neither the relational operator control nor the Boolean operator control can be manipulated using the keyboard. You can avoid this problem by using the standard Find dialog box.