Interface characteristics

The following are general interface accessibility characteristics to help installers and administrators as well as specific characteristics for business analysts, developers, and other users.

Installation and administration characteristics

Installation: You can install IBM® Business Automation Workflow either interactively or silently from the command line. Silent installation is recommended for users with accessibility needs.

Administration

The administrative console is the primary interface for managing applications that are deployed with IBM Workflow Server. The Process Admin Console is the primary interface for managing process servers in your runtime environments and for managing the IBM Workflow Center server that is part of Workflow Center. The Workflow Center console is a convenient location for administrators to create and maintain high-level library items, such as process applications and toolkits. Each of these consoles is displayed in a standard web browser. By using an accessible web browser, such as Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft Internet Explorer, administrators can

Use screen-reader software and a digital speech synthesizer to hear what is displayed on the screen.
Operate most features by using the keyboard instead of the mouse.

Characteristics for business analysts and developers

Business analysts and developers can model and implement new business processes, design user interfaces for business processes, and visualize process data by using IBM Process Designer. They can also use the Workflow Center Console to create and manage process applications and toolkits they created.

For tips and keyboard accessibility features for the Process Designer, see Tips and keyboard shortcuts for the Process Designer.
For tips on how to navigate the desktop Process Designer by using the keyboard, see Tips and keyboard shortcuts for the desktop Process Designer (deprecated).

Process Designer and Workflow Center Console have the following limitations:

When you use the desktop Process Designer, which is installed on your local computer, you might notice
- Some icons do not display properly in high contrast.
- In some cases, assistive technology does not work with the visual focus indicator that responds to user input.
These limitations apply only to the desktop Process Designer. They do not apply to the Process Designer. For details about when to use each type of editor, see Where to edit Process Designer artifacts.
In the Workflow Center Console:
- Going to the table report that is generated from Process Documentation requires you to use the mouse.
- Going to the search results in Workflow Center Console requires you to use the mouse.

Characteristics for other users

The accessibility features of Process Portal are described in Accessibility in Process Portal and for Heritage Process Portal in Accessibility in Heritage Process Portal.

Starting with IBM Business Automation Workflow V8.0.1, coaches are accessible. However, heritage coaches are not accessible.

The distinctions between different types of coaches are described at Difference between coaches and heritage coaches.

For coaches and views, the following accessibility notes apply:

When you use JAWS to read the Date Time Picker control and you use Ctrl+Page Up or Ctrl+Page Down to change the year in the calendar, JAWS does not announce this change. However, when you finish setting the date, JAWS announces the date, which includes the updated year. For more information, see Screen Reader Issues.
When you use JAWS to set the time in the On Click Date Time Picker, JAWS announces the following instructions: To set the value use the arrow key or type the value. JAWS users should type the time value and ignore the instructions to use the arrow keys. JAWS does not announce changes when you use the arrow keys. For more information, see Accessibility.