Microsoft Active Accessibility
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Microsoft Active Accessibility is a COM-based technology designed to improve the way accessibility aids work with applications running on Microsoft Windows. Accessibility aids may include screen readers for the visually impaired, visual indicators or captions for people with hearing loss, software to compensate for motion disabilities, etc. Active Accessibility provides dynamic-link libraries that are incorporated into the operating system as well as a COM interface and application programming elements that provide reliable methods for exposing information about user interface elements.
Microsoft Active Accessibility was originally made available in April 1997 in the form of a Re-Distributable Kit (RDK) that included updated operating system components for Microsoft Windows 95. Since Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4, Active Accessibility has been built-into all versions of the Windows platform, and has received periodic upgrades over time to increase its robustness and versatility.
A new managed code accessibility API known as Microsoft UI Automation (UIA) in addition to Active Assessibility is being introduced with .NET Framework 3.0 to drive user interfaces.
