Java SE Desktop Accessibility

Java Access Bridge is a technology that exposes the Java Accessibility API in a Microsoft Windows DLL, enabling Java applications and applets that implement the Java Accessibility API to be visible to assistive technologies on Microsoft Windows systems. Java Accessibility API is part of Java Accessibility Utilities, which is a set of utility classes that help assistive technologies provide access to GUI toolkits that implement the Java Accessibility API.

In order for existing assistive technologies available on Microsoft Windows systems to provide access to Java applications, they need some way to communicate with Java Accessibility Utilities. Java Access Bridge supports this communication.

An assistive technology application running on Microsoft Windows (for example a screen reader) communicates with Java Access Bridge DLLs, which in turn communicates with the Java Virtual Machine through Java Access Bridge Java libraries. These Java libraries communicate with Java Accessibility Utilities. Java Accessibility Utilities collects information about what is happening in the Java application, which it forwards to the screen reader through Java Access Bridge.