Elsewhere in this blog I have discussed the relative inaccessibility of the Arduino IDE -- the free integrated development environment downloadable from arduino.org. Various rumors and suggestions have reached me about how it can be configured to work with the Java Access Bridge, but despite hours of effort I have never been able to do it myself.
Now, Ken Perry, blind maker, frequent advisor to the Blind Arduino Blog, and software engineer at the American Printing House for the Blind, has finally documented how to make the Arduino IDE work with a Windows screen reader. It is one of the early posts in what is bound to be an awesome blog on blind electronics.
It's great that Ken has finally told us how to get the Arduino IDE to work with the JAB, but I will probably continue to write code and upload from Notepad++ rather than use JAB with the IDE. This is mostly because I have concerns about the security of the Java Access Bridge, but I also feel like I have spent enough hours of my life fruitlessly wrestling with the JAB and don't feel like doing it any more. Maybe I'll try it some day when I'm feeling energized and long on patience.
For many people working in larger institutions such as schools or libraries, the JAB approach will also not be convenient because it requires extensive modification of environment variables and system-level files. Many system administrators will not like the configuration changes necessary to make the Java Access Bridge work with the Arduino IDE.
But the good news is that you can do it if you want, and Ken Perry is the hero of the day for finally telling us how. Thanks, Ken!
