System settings for size, font, and color

Support system settings for size, font, and color for all user interface controls.

Operating systems, like Windows, provide the capability to configure system color, fonts, and font sizes to be helpful for people with disabilities. People with low vision often configure their system for high contrast and larger font settings. People who are color blind may wish to configure system colors for a monochrome color scheme. People who are dyslexic may wish to have the client area make use of a rose background to improve readability.

The size of text and graphics affects usability as well as accessibility. Many individuals who do not consider themselves to be disabled want to "view" a document or an application work area in an enlarged font while not affecting the actual document or work. For individuals with acknowledged visual impairments, the ability to zoom the application work area to 150%, 200% or greater may make the difference between being able to use the application or not. The vast majority of individuals who need this kind of access do not use screen magnifiers.

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Use one or more of the following techniques to meet Checkpoint 4.4 from the IBM Java Accessibility Checklist

• If you use the Windows Pluggable Look and Feel (PLAF), provided with JFC, and you use standard JFC components you will automatically inherit system color settings on all Windows systems. This technique does not work for other operating systems. Currently in Java 1.3 the Windows PLAF does not pick up system font settings. In order to meet the font requirement of this checkpoint for Windows you can use the technique in the next paragraph. Note: Sun may correct this omission in future release of Java 1.4.
• System font and color settings only are inherited on a Windows JVM. Although not required, it is helpful if your application responds to changes in system font and color changes to avoid having to stop and restart your application.
• If you have a custom component that does not support JFC or PLAF you will need to access the appropriate systems settings using JNI and a .dll or .so as described in the previous paragraph. The exception to this rule is dialog boxes in Windows which do not inherit settings.
• Provide a zoom option in the View menu to allow flexible choice of enlarged text in the client area. Compare with Microsoft Word or Lotus 123.
• Zoom features scale everything in the document to a user-selected ratio. Use of the TrueType scalable font technology ensures that characters will remain clearly defined at almost any size.
• Draft mode means providing an option to display all text in a single font and size. If possible, allow the user to choose the draft font and size. Use underlining or a similar form of highlighting to indicate text that should be drawn with special formatting, such as bold or italics. (Draft mode also improves performance when running on slow systems or with little free memory.)
• Wrap to window options are helpful when displaying text documents. When the user chooses this option, the application should not break lines on the screen as they would appear on the printed page, but instead reflow each paragraph to fit the window.

Test the software to ensure that it complies with accessibility requirements.

• To test your implementation, modify the system settings for color and font for each component type in your application, then ensure that the changes appear in each of your Java application components.
• Test all magnifications of the Zoom option.
• Verify that the document itself is not effected by changing the Zoom setting.