Hey Tom, Very quick question which isn't particularly game related but would be good to know.
Is UI Automation backward compatible in any way? I'm asking from the point of view of someone who finds themselves writing to plugin developers quite often to see whether there's any interest in improving the accessibility of their plugins. Should I be directing them to documentation on UI Automation instead of exposing their GUI via MSAA? Cheers Scott On 5/1/13, Thomas Ward <thomasward1...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Charles, > > Well, one thing Microsoft has done in Windows 8 that is superior to XP > is they have a new API called UI Automation which acts as a bridge > between the graphical controls on your screen and your screen reader. > It is for this reason that all the virtual intercept drivers and > off-screen models that Jaws, Window-Eyes, Supernova, etc were using > before are no longer necessary. Your screen reader can now get the > identity of any control and its status directly from the Windows API. > Unlike MsSAA, which is now deprecated, UI Automation is now a core > part of the Windows API so software developers don't have to do > anything special to make their Windows 8 applications screen reader > accessible. They just have to follow some basic standards and > guidelines. > > UI Automation is in part why Narrator works so much better in Windows > 8 than prior versions. All of Microsoft's flagship applications like > Internet Explorer, windows Live Mail, Wordpad, Notepad, Microsoft > Office 2010, use UI Automation so they are suppose to be screen reader > friendly out of the box. A lot of the apps you can download for > Windows 8 are fairly screen reader friendly because they use UI > Automation. I found a few that needed some accessibility improvements, > but by and large I think once UI Automation becomes more mainstream we > will see access improve on Windows 8 and later versions in general. > > Microsoft SAPI has gotten a nice over hall as well. SAPI 5.5 comes > with a bunch more voices and they are light years better compared to > the SAPI voices for XP. Some of the new SAPI voices are almost as good > as the Vocalizer/Realspeak voices that comes with Jaws and they are > free. Plus they work with the SAPI 5 enabled games. While not > necessarily an accessibility improvement per say I think the new > voices is one reason to consider an upgrade. > > Another thing about Windows 8 is there are a lot of new Windows 8 hot > keys to do various things such as Windows+f to find a file, Windows+c > to go to the charm bar, Windows+i to open your settings, Windows+q to > search your apps, Windows+tab to cycle throughopen apps, Windows+w to > search your settings, etc. Basically, there are loads of hot keys > available to get around and use Windows 8 without the mouse or a > touchscreen. > > Something else that improves the access of Windows 8 is being able to > pin commonly used applications to the task bar. Let's say you use > Internet Explorer all the time. You can press the context menu key on > it right arrow to "Pin This Application to the Task Bar" and it will > always be on your Task Bar and you don't have to go hunting through > the Start Screen to find it.Even better if it is the first item pinned > to your Task Bar pressing Windows+1 will jump directly to Internet > Explorer no matter where you are in Windows 8. Cool eh? > > Cheers! --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
