The Accessibility API implementation on AWT in JDK 1.3 is incomplete, and returns 'null' for various things in ways defined to be legal, but not expected by the Java Access Bridge. This is likely the cause of apparent hangs in the interface of AWT apps when used with the Bridge and JavaFerret. To reproduce this problem, use appletviewer with http://www.ndr2.de/chat, the Bridge, and JavaFerret tracking various events (e.g. Focus). When used together, the applet will seem to stop accepting user input (keyboard, mouse, etc.).