In case it's useful, and in case you're willing to forward this to the original poster, here's my response. I prefer to keep this discussion on list rather than taking it to private emails, largely to increase the number of people who can benefit from the discussion.
Whether scripting can render a particular feature accessible, and how much code it will require, are very subject to the nature of the accessibility problem needing to be solved. I don't think there's a generic answer to the questions of how many features can be made accessible or with how much effort. Businesses that specialize in this sort of work tend to do "assessments," or evaluations of accessibility problems, to determine exactly the answers to those questions on a case by case basis. So, if you find a feature for which you want improved access, figure out what doesn't work right, look for a way to make it work right, and figure in your head how long, and/or howmuch code you think it would take to make this happen. The process of figuring out how to make something accessible is a design phase, much like the drawing phase one might go through as an architect when crafting a new building. In both cases, you figure out what's needed, draw up basic plans for achieving it, estimate time and cost, and then do it if you have sufficient resources. As to whether such a script would slow down the system: This can become a goal when designing a solution - to avoid slowing things down. As a concrete example, though not for Window-Eyes in this case: This week I had to implement a means to announce error popup boxes on a Silverlight page as they appear. I did not initially find a way to have the application notify me when such a box appeared (these are called "events"), so I contemplated periodically scanning the entire tree of UI Automation (UIA) objects in the application for new members. I quickly learned that a single scan could take several seconds. Out went that idea with a whoosh from my design possibilities. Fortunately I eventually found a way to capture an event that, even if indirectly, informed me when an error message had appeared. This cost me virtually no execution time because my code could simply react to the actual appearance of the window and speak its contents. On Thu, May 21, 2015 at 08:02:08PM -0400, Rod Hutton via Scripting wrote: Hi, Here's a post on the talk list which those of you on this list might wish to respond to. Thanks, Rod -----Original Message----- From: Talk [mailto:talk-bounces+rod_hutton=hotmail....@lists.window-eyes.com] On Behalf Of Dave via Talk Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2015 7:22 PM To: t...@lists.window-eyes.com Subject: Scripting question Hello, I have a good understanding of Computers. I have some programing experience, but it has been a few years since I've done any coding. I keep hearing about Scripting, as if it can really bring an otherwise Non-accessible program into the ranks of the accessible programs. This question might be impossible to answer, but I'll toss it out here. If I wanted to write a Script to make MS Word accessible, even down to the smallest of features, is this possible to do, since there are several hundred features in MS Word. I think this question could be asked about making all areas in MS Windows accessible as well. Is this sort of project unrealistic? Would the project be too large to work well without affecting the operation of MS Word? If the Script is very large, does it slow down the over all speed of a program such as MS Word? I am grateful for the Scripts others have written for my benefit. Without them, I would have No Access. But, often I want to change a setting in MS Word, or in Windows, and that part of the program does not read well. It might be an obscure area and so most users are not going to ever need access, so there is no Scripting for these kinds of areas. I notice that most Scripts give general access, but not too much in the smaller areas. So when it comes down to it, you have limited access to MS Word, and most other programs. So, I am asking, To give total access to MS Word, would the Script need to be as large as MS Word? Which would make giving total access for a program an impractical request. _______________________________________________ Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Ai Squared. For membership options, visit http://lists.window-eyes.com/options.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com/rod_hutton%40h otmail.com. For subscription options, visit http://lists.window-eyes.com/listinfo.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com List archives can be found at http://lists.window-eyes.com/private.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com _______________________________________________ Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Ai Squared. For membership options, visit http://lists.window-eyes.com/options.cgi/scripting-window-eyes.com/doug.lee%40ssbbartgroup.com. For subscription options, visit http://lists.window-eyes.com/listinfo.cgi/scripting-window-eyes.com List archives can be found at http://lists.window-eyes.com/private.cgi/scripting-window-eyes.com -- Doug Lee, Senior Accessibility Programmer SSB BART Group - Accessibility-on-Demand mailto:doug....@ssbbartgroup.com http://www.ssbbartgroup.com "While they were saying among themselves it cannot be done, it was done." --Helen Keller _______________________________________________ Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Ai Squared. For membership options, visit http://lists.window-eyes.com/options.cgi/scripting-window-eyes.com/archive%40mail-archive.com. For subscription options, visit http://lists.window-eyes.com/listinfo.cgi/scripting-window-eyes.com List archives can be found at http://lists.window-eyes.com/private.cgi/scripting-window-eyes.com
