Friday December 15, 2006

IBM has announced IAccessible2

Yesterday IBM has announced "IAccessible2".

IAccessible2 is an API (application programming interface) designed for Windows.
It fills the gap between existing Accessibility API called MSAA or IAccessible, which is not very complete, and full featured Accessibility API like in GNOME (ATK), Java (JAA) or OpenOffice.org (UAA).

Actually, the work is directly derived from the OpenOffice.org UNO Accessibility API, as you can see on the Sun copyright in the IDL files.

The API is not proprietary, but given to the Free Standards Group for further standardization.

Because of IAccessible2 is just extending IAccessible, not replacing it, AT vendors should be able to support that quite easily. This should result in much better support from a broader range of Assistive Technology on Windows for Mozilla and OpenOffice.org in the future!

Posted by Malte Timmermann ( Dec 15 2006, 11:33:39 AM CET ) Permalink Comments [0]