An Integrated Development Environment with Visualizations for Improving Software Comprehensibility

jGRASP Accessibility

The most recent VPAT (section 508) for jGRASP is available here: VPAT (pdf).

Notable Accessiblity Features

If you find a problem with any accessibility features of jGRASP or with the content of the jgrasp.org website, please let us know.

UI Scaling

The entire interface - fonts, icons, and much of the spacing - is globally scalable. The global scale can be accessed through "Settings" > "Font", through the key combinations Ctrl/Cmd-plus, Ctrl/Cmd-minus, Ctrl/Cmd-zero, or by holding down Ctrl or Cmd and Shift while scrolling the mouse wheel.

Individual editing, message, and many visualization windows can be scaled separately using "Settings" > "CSD Window Settings" > "Workspace", "Project", or "File" > "Font" or "Font Size", through the key combinations Ctrl/Cmd-Shift-plus, Ctrl/Cmd-Shift-minus, Ctrl/Cmd-Shift-zero, or by holding down Ctrl or Cmd and while scrolling the mouse wheel.

Toolbar icons can be scaled separately using "View" > "Toolbar Icon Size".

Colors and Contrast

The Look&Feel can be selected through "Settings" > "Look And Feel / Theme". A high contrast dark theme is available. This and editing window colors can be set using "Settings" > "Colors".

Assistive Technologies

The ui of the jGRASP IDE is implemented mainly in Java Swing. The Swing ui components implement appropriate parts of the Java Accessibility API. The jGRASP custom editing component (CSD Window) also implements relevant portions of this API. This allows source code text, the text of other ui components, and alternate text for graphical components to be available to assistive technologies. jGRASP produces several source code and runtime visualizations. For some of these visualizations, no useful text representations are available at this time.

On Windows, assistive technologies communicate with the Java Accessibility API through the Java Access Bridge, which is included with Java but not enabled by default. Numerous screen readers and other assistive technology tools support the Java Access Bridge.

On macOS, Java Accessibility API communication access is built-in. The VoiceOver screen reader included with macOS and other macOS compatible screen readers work with jGRASP.

On Linux, Java Accessibility API communication access is built-in to most popular desktop environments, and accessibility tools are included with most distributions.

Other Accessibility Settings

Tooltips can be made persistent using "Settings" > "Desktop" > "Persistent Tooltips".

Flashing cursors can be turned off globally using "Settings" > "Desktop" > "Blinking Cursors".

Website and Help Files

The jgrasp.org website conforms to level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2.

The HTML help files for jGRASP conform to level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2.