[Athen] Open Office

[Pratik Patel]

Hello all,

We have to keep in mind that MS Office Word has been heavily scripted by
both Freedomscientific and GW Micro by using the object model exposed by
Word.  No work of that kind has been done for Open Office.  There are some
significant issues when it comes to Java through the Access bridge.  The
Window-Eyes solution is slightly better but not a lot.  I've had far more
luck running Open Office on the Mac with Voice Over than under Windows.  I
find Open Office on the Mac quite slow for some reason.

I've not tested this but have recently heard some excellent reviews of Star
Office with Orca.  If I get a chance to test this, I'll report back.

Regards,

Pratik


-----Original Message-----
From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On
Behalf Of Sean J Keegan
Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 5:50 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network
Subject: Re: [Athen] Open Office

 > there is basically very limited access to Open Office
 > for Windows based screen readers.

In addition to the Java Access Bridge, remember to also enable the 
"Support Assistive Technology tool" option in Open Office (located at 
Tools > Options > Accessibility).  While this certainly does not make 
Open Office fully accessible, it is somewhat better.  Still not more 
accessible or usable than MS Word though...

Take care,
Sean