Introducing ArcGIS Menu-bar

So far the commands of the mGIS control panel were not accessible for a blind user. Only standard Java buttons were made accessible by adding mouse motion listener on them. But other than standard Java buttons, there were couple of ArcGIS built-in commands, which can't be customized to add mouse listener.

I was searching web and found one article that says: "JAWS is the only popular screen reader that works with Java applications....Allow users to press the “F10” key to move focus to the Java application window menu bar (“File,” “Edit,” “View”) at the top of the application window. When a menu bar menu is open, allow users to press the right arrow and left arrow keys to move between and open adjacent menu bar menus."

http://www.lawrence-najjar.com/papers/Accessible_Java_application_user_interface_design_guidelines.html

That makes me more interested about Jaws and menu-bars of ArcGIS. Now I am implementing a simple program that uses ArcGIS menu-bar for ArcGIS built-in commands and standard Java MenuBar. If this this program works well then I will integrate this with our current version of mGIS.

Fortunately now Jaws can enunciate the names of ArcGIS commands whenever the mouse is hovering on the menu items. I am also playing a little bit with Java Swing Borderlayout to implement corner based popup menus as suggested by our Geography partners..