[Blindmath] First attempt at an SWT/SVG based drawing program

[Amanda Lacy]

I should never have this program open in class unless I want to have lots of 
fun while missing every single word spoken in lecture. Once I found out what 
I was doing to crash the program, I found a cool way to use it which allows 
for an instant view of what you've drawn even before embossing it.

Here's how I like to edit drawings. I first open the vOICe learning 
edition - a free download from seeingwithsound.com.
Preparing the vOICe for viewing drawings is done in three steps:
The default view for this program is that bright colors produce loud sounds 
and dark shades are quiet. To reverse this, hit F5 for negative video. Hit 
control F9 to sonify the current window, then minimize the program.
I was able to edit a picture I'd just created by not pressing the button 
called "start a new drawing" so that the shapes are still in memory, adding 
a new shape, then writing it to the same filename. I opened the picture in 
firefox. Each time I make a change to the file, I can hit F5 in firefox and 
instantly hear the change to the picture as the vOICe sonifies that window. 
I can also use control = and control - to adjust the size of the picture in 
firefox.

I love the instant graphical gratification.

Amanda

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Baldwin" <baldwin at dickbaldwin.com>
To: "BlindMath Mailing List" <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, August 29, 2011 9:02 PM
Subject: [Blindmath] First attempt at an SWT/SVG based drawing program


> For those who may be interested, I have posted my first attempt at putting
> an SWT GUI front end on my SVG graphics library and have posted the
> resulting program in a file named SVGDraw01.jar at the following URL:
>
> http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/SWT-SVG/SVGDraw01.jar
>
> I would appreciate it if some of you would download the program, try it, 
> and
> provide feedback in several different areas. You will need the Java 
> virtual
> machine installed on your computer to run the program. On Windows, you can
> run the program either by double-clicking on the jar file, or by opening a
> command prompt in the folder containing the jar file and entering the
> following command at the command prompt:
>
> java -jar SVGDraw01.jar
>
> When the program starts running, you should find yourself in an SWT Combo
> object with an item labeled "User Instructions" highlighted. Pressing the
> Enter key at this point will take you to the beginning of a page 
> containing
> user instructions. A screen reader should tell you to press shift-tab to
> return to the combo box or to press the tab key to continue.
>
> Pressing the tab key will cause the screen reader to begin reading the
> instructions. At the end of the instructions, the screen reader should 
> tell
> you to "Press tab to return to the combo box." (Of course, you can press 
> tab
> at any time. You don't need to wait until the screen reader finishes 
> reading
> the instructions.)
>
> You can navigate up and down the list in the combo box using the arrow 
> keys
> and act on an item by pressing the Enter key when that item is selected. 
> The
> combo box currently contains the following items:
>
> User instructions (which is what you should do first)
> Start a new drawing (which is what you should do next)
> Draw a line
> Draw a rectangle
> Draw a circle
> Draw an ellipse
> Draw a polyline
> Draw a polygon
> Write drawing file (which is what you should do next to last)
> Stop program (which is what you should do last)
>
> When you press the Enter key on the item labeled "Start a new drawing," an
> empty SVG page of a specified size with optional title and description
> attributes will be created in memory.
>
> When you press the Enter key on the item labeled "Write drawing file", 
> that
> SVG page will be written to an output SVG file with a name of your 
> choosing
> and an extension of .svg.
>
> Between starting a new drawing and writing the drawing file, you can add
> elements for any number of any of the six shapes (which are the SVG basic
> shapes) in any order to the SVG page.
>
> When you press the Enter key on a shape item, you will land on a form that
> allows you to enter the most commonly used attributes for that shape. Fill
> in the blanks, check the check boxes (if any), and finally push the button
> labeled "Push to draw ---" to add the shape element to the SVG page. You 
> can
> navigate up and down the the form with the tab key and shift-tab.
>
> I would appreciate receiving feedback in at least the following areas.
> Feedback in other areas not listed below will be appreciated also.
>
> 1. Will the program be accessible to a blind student? What could be done 
> to
> improve accessibility?
>
> 2. Will the navigation structure of the program be functionally useful to 
> a
> blind student? What could be done to improve the navigational 
> functionality
> and make the program easier to use?
>
> 3. Will the "fill-in-the-blanks" concept for creating technical diagrams 
> and
> drawings, such as vector diagrams and free-body diagrams, be useful to a
> blind student? If so, which of the many additional capabilities of SVG, 
> such
> as arcs, paths, etc., would be appropriate as an upgrade to the program.
> (I'm already planning on adding the ability to create text elements. I 
> just
> haven't resolved all the questions regarding fonts yet.)
>
> 4. To what extent is the output SVG file compatible with graphics 
> embossers
> that can work with SVG files as input? What could be done to improve that
> compatibility?
>
> Thank you,
>
> Dick Baldwin
>
> -- 
> Richard G. Baldwin (Dick Baldwin)
> Home of Baldwin's on-line Java Tutorials
> http://www.DickBaldwin.com
>
> Professor of Computer Information Technology
> Austin Community College
> (512) 223-4758
> mailto:Baldwin at DickBaldwin.com
> http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/
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