Screen Readers and UIA
- From: "Chris Hofstader" <chris.hofstader@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2008 06:58:49 -0500
Hi,
I'm fairly confident that System Access supports UIA at some level but one
would need to ask Matt or Mike for a definite answer. I also think someone
told me that NVDA will or does support it but I haven't checked.
At HJ/FS we always had a bit of a "wait and see" attitude toward new
accessibility related API and the truly ugly problems with MSAA 1.xx
reminded us that we were right in doing so. Today, with so few applications
using UIA, it probably causes yet another chicken and egg situation where
the screen readers won't support it until the ISV community starts using it
which will only begin when the screen readers start supporting it.
GW typically jumps onto MS supported API and such much more quickly than FS.
If you read up on the new Microsoft AIA program, pay special attention to
the membership list. It includes all major SR vendors except FS. I do not
know any of the politics behind the scenes and can't say that I care either.
A bunch of years ago, the ATIA AT/IT compatibility team, of which I chaired
the bits and bytes subgroup, tried to come up with a common standard for
accessibility API. We had MS, Apple and Sun involved as well as FS and AI
and a couple of other AT players. As the project ground forward, companies
would start to drop out. At the bitter end, it was just IBM, Sun and FS and
our results looked a lot like the gnome accessibility API.
I think that iAccessible2 is the most likely to give us a really good
accessibility API that's consistent across platforms but, once again, other
than the Mozilla funded software, we'll have the dog chasing his tail
problem again. The GPL programs probably have the best chance if, somehow,
we (meaning our community of accessibility hackers worldwide) can build a
cadre of hackers who go back into applications and retrofit the
accessibility code while keeping the other folks who work on those programs
up to date about why this effort is happening and how much easier it will be
if they add such to their features rather than requiring it to be added
later.
cdh
From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Chris Meredith
Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2008 5:44 PM
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: Is WPF Accessable?
There's no really short answer to that question, sadly. As it stands now,
WPF is accessible using UI Automation. Sadly, however, screen reader
vendors haven't added access to UI Automation, for reasons of which I'm not
entirely certain, though I expect it has something to do with their
reluctance to write part of their product in managed code (I'm not entirely
certain what performance hits they would encounter there). There is an
unmanaged UI Automation API, but documentation is minimal at best, and
Microsoft strongly advises using the managed API. What I want to know, and
perhaps someone more wise in the ways of screen reader development than I
can provide an answer here, is why the vendors don't write potential UI
Automation handlers in managed C++, which is a recommended way of mixing
managed and unmanaged code in the same application (and I expect they're
using C++ for at least part of their development as it stands).
From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Richard Thomas
Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2008 2:34 PM
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Is WPF Accessable?
Hi Punit:
Don't know, still trying to find a set of instalation instructions for VS
2008 Pro to set up an installation plan.
Rick USA
----- Original Message -----
From: Punit Diwan <mailto:punitdiwan@xxxxxxxxx>
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2008 10:33 AM
Subject: Is WPF Accessable?
Dear Members,
We all are aware that Microsoft .NET 3.0 and later comes loaded with
WPF application development functionality. Now VS 2008, every can easily
develop WPF enabled applications.
I want to ask is it possible to develop WPF applications for we people?
I tried Linq and it seems accessable to me. Did any one tried WPF
application development using designer.
I assume once we develop WPF enabled app, we will have to use UI
Automation to make it acessable as recommended by Microsoft. Waiting for
your comments.
Thanks
Punit Diwan
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