Microsoft's New Accessibility Model to Be Offered as Cross-Platform Solution
for Industry 

Microsoft® Windows® User Interface (UI) Automation is the new accessibility
and automated testing model for Microsoft Windows. It is intended to address
the needs of assistive technology products and automated testing frameworks
by providing a consistent model to programmatically access graphical UI
information. It provides mechanisms to gather all relevant UI information, a
rich event model to detect state changes, and the ability to programmatically
manipulate UI elements. 

With current technology, assistive technology developers are required to use
many different approaches to obtain and present information about the UI to
computer users who rely on assistive technology products. These developers
therefore spend an inordinate amount of time and resources gathering the UI
information required for their application instead of spending this time
innovating in their feature set. UI Automation reduces the cost for these
developers by delivering the most complete accessibility model in the
industry. It will become the primary source of UI information for the next
generation of assistive technology products. 

Individuals who use assistive technology products will benefit from more
consistent access to information across applications and operating systems
(platforms), wider availability of these products, and greater compatibility
between applications and their assistive technology products. 


Microsoft's New Accessibility Model
http://www.microsoft.com/enable/at/uia.aspx

Questions and Answers About UI Automation
http://www.microsoft.com/enable/at/uiainfo.aspx

The New Accessibility Model for Windows
http://www.designfor21st.org/proceedings/proceedings/project_logan.html

Contributed by Jamie Prioli