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Thread: Citrix and JAWS
Number of posts in this thread: 6 (In chronological order)
From: Giovanni Duarte
Date: Fri, Nov 04 2011 10:03AM
Subject: Citrix and JAWS
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Hi,
My institution is trying to make the Citrix environment more accessible. I
haven't been able to find much information about it. I am looking for the
technical details and answers to the following questions:
- Have any of you successfully implemented JAWS in Citrix? If so, how? Any
recommendations will be appreciated
- I noticed that JAWS has a Citrix license available but I am not sure how
the technology is implemented. What are all the "components" (technologies)
needed to make Citrix accessible?
- What do I need to have for a remote user to be able to use Citrix?
To put everything in context, the Citrix environment is used for online
students so we can't control their computer equipment. I am looking for a
solution where a screen reader user can use the Citrix applications. I know
the applications themselves can be a different problem but some others, such
as Microsoft Office applications, are "accessible" but via Citrix these
become inaccessible.
Thanks,
Giovanni
From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: Mon, Nov 07 2011 7:36AM
Subject: Re: Citrix and JAWS
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Giovanni,
I am not an expert on using screen readers in a Citrix environment, but I did do some research previously. My understanding is that to make a screen reader work in that environment you will end up having to run a screen reader on the Citrix server and on the client workstation. The screen reader on the server is the one that does the heavy work of interacting with the application running on the server. I believe the client-side screen reader basically ends up sending commands to the server-side screen reader. The reason for this being that the application isn't run on the client-side so a client-side screen reader has nothing to interact with.
That at least is my understanding of how it works. Unfortunately, I only conducted research on the topic and didn't end up needing to set up a test environment using Citrix. I did have a brief opportunity to test a Citrix client app on an IOS device, but it was inaccessible and there was no screen reader running on the server-side so I wasn't expecting it to work--one of those times, when I would much rather be wrong than right.
Life would be much easier if I could be right whenever I want to be right and wrong any time I wanted to be wrong.
Tim
From: Patterson, David K (ITD)
Date: Mon, Nov 07 2011 8:48AM
Subject: Re: Citrix and JAWS
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Hi,
One of the requirements for using JAWS within a Citrix environment is that JAWS needs to be installed and configured on both the Citrix XenApp Server, as well as the client computer. Furthermore, you need to purchase the Remote Access option for both JAWS installation to have it work at all. So, you cannot control your online students' computer equipment and their Assistive Technology software, then you may have a major problem in providing a Citrix solution that would be fully accessible.
You should know that there are other assistive technologies and all of them would need to be compatible in a Citrix based environment. For example, from my understanding, ZoomText, a screen reader / magnifier from AI Squared does not support remote access.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts looked into these very issues a couple years ago and found that the Citrix solutions used with various AT software did not meet our accessibility standards. That may have changed somewhat since then, but we have done any further work on that.
Your comment that "Microsoft Office applications, are 'accessible' but via Citrix these become inaccessible" is what we had found too, let alone other types of applications. You might be better off deploying eLearning based solutions that have a better likelihood of being more accessible for your students.
I hope some of this helps.
David
From: Giovanni Duarte
Date: Mon, Nov 07 2011 9:00AM
Subject: Re: Citrix and JAWS
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Tim,
That is the same understanding I have. I am hoping to find someone that has
implemented Citrix with some accessibility support.
Thanks,
Giovanni
From: Giovanni Duarte
Date: Mon, Nov 07 2011 9:06AM
Subject: Re: Citrix and JAWS
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Thank you David for the comments. We are trying to provide "alternatives"
for students so Citrix is not the only way to deliver software ; however,
there are some software applications, that due to licensing issues, work
"better" in Citrix.
I will check about the use of other assistive technologies - to be honest, I
completely forgot about it. I can see problems with Naturally Speaking, Zoom
text, and other technologies.
Thanks,
Giovanni
From: Patterson, David K (ITD)
Date: Mon, Nov 07 2011 9:45AM
Subject: Re: Citrix and JAWS
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Hi,
The information that I provided was based upon a pilot Citrix environment that we had setup to determine the accessibility of Citrix for us. We worked closely with Citrix and a Citrix System Integrator to setup a test environment with the Citrix server and client computers with the appropriate technologies including various AT software. Unfortunately, our results were not encouraging at that time and we decided that Citrix did not provide adequate accessibility support.
David