[infoshare] Microsoft releases tools to boost Web accessibility
- From: "Luis Guerra" <brl50sky@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "InfoShare" <InfoShare@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:54:02 -0500
Microsoft releases tools to boost Web accessibility
Posted by
Stefanie Olsen
Microsoft on Thursday is expected to release a new set of developer tools
for products that improve the Internet's accessibility for people with
disabilities.
The tools, called UI Automation, can be used royalty-free, according to
Microsoft's Windows Accessibility lead Norm Hodne, as long as the resulting
applications
are built to perform within all platforms, e.g. Windows or Linux.
Microsoft formally donated the UI (user interface) Automation developer
tools to the Accessibility Interoperability Alliance (AIA), an engineering
working
group that the software giant helped form last November in partnership with
tech companies like Oracle, Novell, Hewlett-Packard and Adobe Systems, as
well
as assistive-technology developers like GW Micro. The working group's
mission is to pave the way for standards in the industry for text-to-speech
software,
screen readers and other assistive products.
Microsoft's UI Automation comes nearly 12 years after the company's last
developer tools for accessibility user design, which were released with
Windows
95. Hodne said that UI Automation updates its predecessor by offering
developer shortcuts and improved user performance--and the two formats work
together.
Despite the fact that UI Automation encourages interoperability among
platforms, they're not the only developer tools in the market. Linux and the
Linux
Foundation provide APIs for the industry, too.
"First we have to work on interoperability of current (developer tools)
across multiple platforms and then we'll work on coming to a single set of
(developer
tools in the industry)," Hodne said.
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