Wanting to contribute to 1. updating JavaFX Developers Guide, 2. JavaFX Accessibility Development and Documentation

[Glen & Nicci Johnson]

Hello OpenJFX Community

I’ve just rejoined the OpenJFX community with a desire to contribute
to its current path of development (documentation and code). Just a
quick introduction. I’m an experienced Software Developer who has been
using Java consistently since the 90s. As I have an interest in areas
like User Interface development and computer graphics, I’ve followed
the evolution of JavaFX over the last decade. I am passionate about
Digital Accessibility design and development, and am good (so I’m
told) at Technical Writing. This leads me to ask two questions:

1. Latest JavaFX Official Developers Documentation / Guide

Since Java 8, and the changes to the release schedule following Java
9, the (official) JavaFX Developers Documentation does not appear to
have been maintained / updated. The last available version dates back
to Java 8.

This appears to have created confusion for some developers wanting to
get deeper into developing with more recent releases of JavaFX e.g.
ver. 11 or 12. I’m aware there is a short “Getting Started with
JavaFX” guide. However, people who don’t already have a deep
understanding of the inner workings of JavaFX may need a lot more than
this quick introduction and the JavaDoc API to guide them. [1].

I know there are a fair number of good JavaFX books and also various
useful tutorials sprinkled over the web, but I think it would be good
to get the official JavaFX Developer Documentation updated and
available for more recent releases. I would like to help with this if
possible please.

What’s the best way to contribute to bringing the JavaFX developer
documentation up to date with JavaFX 11 and 12? Is there already a
public facing repository that holds the Oracle JavaFX developer docs
source text that others (such as myself) can contribute towards to
expand, update and improve? Are the Oracle JavaFX 8 developer docs
licensed under Open Source, or would I / we have to start writing an
official developer guide from scratch?

2. JavaFX Accessibility Developer and User Guides

About 5 years ago, when Peter Korn was still part of the Java team at
Oracle as Accessibility Principle, there was a fair amount of
development effort and investment into making JavaFX accessible. Since
Peter’s departure to Amazon, I can see from the OpenJFX repository
that bug fixes and improvements relating to the JavaFX Accessibility
API have continued to some extent. However, the impetus behind Java
Accessibility seems to have waned in recent years. There are indeed a
few JavaFX accessibility tutorials scattered across the web and the
OpenJFX WIKI (on java.net) has a few brief (and much outdated) pages
pertaining to Accessibility development [2]. However, there doesn’t
seem to be an up to date and official JavaFX Accessibility Development
and User Guide available for versions 11 and 12. If I’ve missed it,
please let me know where I can find it.

In recent years, the priority given to Digital Accessibility has risen
significantly as businesses have realised it’s revenue earning
potential. Furthermore, in many countries around the world it is now
illegal for a website or app to be inaccessible to those with
disabilities (in the public sector at least) [3]. For JavaFX to be a
good contender in this respect, especially to be highly regarded in
general by accessibility designer and developer communities, I think
it would be beneficial for more prominence to be given to making sure
the JavaFX accessibility APIs and tools continue to be in excellent
shape and receive all the due diligence that this endeavour needs. Of
course, these efforts also need to include creating and maintaining a
comprehensive Java FX Accessibility Guide for Developers and Users. Is
Gluon perhaps already contributing to efforts in this area? Are there
ways in which I can contribute towards these?

Looking forward to getting feedback from the community on these points.

[1] <https://www.reddit.com/r/java/comments/auczwq/official_javafx_11_documentation/>
[2] <https://wiki.openjdk.java.net/display/OpenJFX/Controls+Accessibility>,
<https://wiki.openjdk.java.net/display/OpenJFX/Accessibility+Exploration>
[3] <https://www.w3.org/WAI/policies/>

Best regards

Glen Johnson

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glenjohnsonsofteng/