- From: Matt May <mattmay@adobe.com>
- Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:18:06 -0800
- To: Michael S Elledge <elledge@msu.edu>
- CC: WAI Interest Group list <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
On Nov 11, 2009, at 9:47 AM, Michael S Elledge wrote: > 1. There are a number of roles that don't map yet to MSAA. What will > happen to them? Will MSAA have to create new roles for them? MSAA hasn't been updated in ages, and as far as I know, never will be. Newer interfaces (User Interface Automation, IAccessible2, AT-SPI, OS X Accessibility API) are capable of supporting ARIA roles, and each ARIA-supporting browser is using one of those. > 2. Will screen readers continue to use the MSAA API for awhile or will > they switch over to the new Microsoft accessibility API? Will it be > backward compatible? It'll be a long time before any screen reader abandons MSAA outright. 99% of the software in the market supports MSAA if it supports anything. But realistically, to do most modern software development, software vendors are going to need to use a newer API, and every screen reader vendor I know of is working on supporting UIA and/or IA2 on Windows, and the platform native APIs on Mac and Linux (and iPhone, and Blackberry, and...) There's a compatibility layer between UIA and MSAA, but as far as ARIA is concerned, I don't believe any web app using ARIA would produce the results you want in MSAA-only screen readers. > 3. Have the screen reader vendors and browser developers put out > roadmaps for their adoption of the ARIA roles? I've seen the Paciello > Group list of current support, which is very helpful, but I wonder > what's to come. Heh. If you find any published roadmaps, let me know. ;) - m
Received on Wednesday, 11 November 2009 16:19:53 UTC