For Release 6 a.m. PST
March 18, 1997
Microsoft Makes It Easier to Create Software
For Individuals With Disabilities
REDMOND, WA - March 18, 1997 - Microsoft Corp. announced
Microsoft_ Active Accessibility_. Active Accessibility is a
Microsoft Windows_ operating system-based technology that makes
it easier for software developers to write applications that can
be used by people with disabilities, thus helping them use
personal computers.
"Personal computers have enabled individuals with disabilities to
perform everyday tasks, such as reading the newspaper or looking
up a telephone number, that most people take for granted," said
Gregg Vanderheiden, director of the Trace Research and
Development Center at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
"Microsoft Active Accessibility sets new standards for operating
system support of access technologies."
Active Accessibility will make it easier to build specialized
utilities, called accessibility aids, that allow people with
disabilities to use computers. Accessibility aids can, for
example, "read" the contents of a computer screen to the blind
using a voice synthesizer; recognize and execute spoken commands,
take spoken dictation and provide word definitions; provide input
through means other than the traditional keyboard and mouse, such
as onscreen keyboards or Morse code; and interpret multimedia
sounds with closed captions for users who are deaf or hard of
hearing. Such accessibility aids allow more people to use
computers at work and at home.
Active Accessibility will also make it easier for vendors of
mainstream software to make their own products accessible.
Active Accessibility allows software developers to incorporate
contextual information about user interfaces into their
applications. For instance, accessibility aids for the blind
provide much of the textual information displayed on the computer
screen. But they can't currently provide information about many
icons, buttons and other graphical elements. With Active
Accessibility a mainstream developer can now add a description to
those elements, allowing an accessibility aid to vocalize their
functions.
Evolving technology, such as the shift from the character-based
user interface of the
MS-DOS_ operating system to the graphical user interface of
Windows, rarely accommodates the needs of individuals with
disabilities and sometimes makes existing accessibility aids
obsolete. Active Accessibility allows users to continue to use
these utilities as applications and operating systems evolve.
"Active Accessibility will lead to more robust accessibility
aids, greater access to information, and a larger market of
applications that are usable by individuals with disabilities,"
said Jim Allchin, senior vice president of the personal and
business systems group at Microsoft.
Active Accessibility also works with Microsoft Internet Explorer
3.0 and Office 97, and is supported by Syntha-Voice Computers
Inc.'s Slimware Window Bridge, Don Johnston Inc.'s
DiscoverSwitch, GW Micro Inc.'s Vocal-Eyes and Kurzweil Applied
Intelligence Inc.'s VOICE. In addition, numerous other vendors
of accessibility aids have committed to supporting Active
Accessibility, including Arctic Technologies International Inc.,
BAUM Products GmbH, F.H. Papenmeier GmbH, Henter-Joyce and
MicroTalk.
"Using Active Accessibility, we will be able to make our products
accessible to everyone," said Enrique Salem, chief technology
officer at Symantec Corp. "That's great news for individuals
with disabilities and good business for Symantec."
Active Accessibility development toolkits and runtime components
are scheduled to be available from Microsoft in May 1997 at no
charge. Beta software is available now from
http://www.microsoft.com/enable/. Initially, Active
Accessibility will be offered for use with Windows 95. After
that, it will be incorporated into future Windows operating
systems, including "Memphis" and Windows NT_ 5.0.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ "MSFT") is the worldwide
leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a
wide range of products and services for business and personal
use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more
enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of
personal computing every day.
#########
Microsoft, Windows, MS-DOS and Windows NT are either registered
trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States
and/or other countries.
Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their
respective owners.
For more information, press only:
Wendy Truax, Waggener Edstrom, (503) 245-0905, wendyt@wagged.com
For online product information:
http://www.microsoft.com/enable/
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional
information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at
http://www.microsoft.com/corpinfo/on Microsoft's corporate
information pages.
----------
"Active Accessibility provides us an interface for accessing
standard and custom controls within our magnification and speech
products. This allows us to concentrate on adding and refining
features in our ZoomText product line, rather than constantly
adapting our system-level code to work with the internals of new
operating systems."
- Ben Weiss, President, Ai Squared Inc.
"By ALVA's acquisition of outSPOKEN and its underlying
technology, ALVA is now able to double the effort into Active
Accessibility and to produce an active mix of Braille and speech
technology. We plan to deliver dual access to Microsoft's new
Office standards with upcoming releases of outSPOKEN in early
1997."
- Jaap Breider, President, ALVA BV
"Artic plans to implement Microsoft's Active Accessibility in
future versions of its products for people with visual
impairments. We feel that the APIs and other supporting
technologies provided through MSAA will create ways for
accessibility software vendors and mainstream software makers to
work together as never before. The end result should be improved
access to the applications that people need in their everyday
work, school, and home environments."
- Dale McDaniel, Vice President of Marketing, Artic Technologies
International Inc.
"With MSAA-implemented ProVision32 and Protalk32, in addition to
our new Wizard features, we will be able to provide users with
even greater access to a wider range of software. Once MSAA is
generally accepted by the industry, it will be a great step
toward conquering otherwise difficult-to-solve application
incompatibilities."
- Henk Melissen, President, Biolink Computer Research and
Development, Ltd.
"DJI feels that Microsoft's new technology will allow users to
have better access to Windows 95 features. And Active
Accessibility should also speed up our development time, allowing
us to get products to market faster."
- Don Johnston, President of Don Johnston Inc.
"euroBRAILLE company, the biggest manufacturer of French Braille
equipment, have started to use the MSAA technology in an
application which will give access to blind people to the
internet. The product will be able in the market at the beginning
of the second quarter of 1997."
- Ioan Montane, President and General Manager, euroBRAILLE s.a.
"The blind computer user needs a simple, stable interface - just
like any sighted user. We feel that by using Active Accessibility
we will be able to deliver the next version of our WinDOTS screen
access product with more creative features and improved access to
applications that make use of non-standard controls."
- Hans Ring, International Sales Manager, F.H. Papenmeier GMBH &
Co KG
"Applications today are extremely competitive when it comes to
user interface. Although this competitiveness may be great for
sighted people, blind and visually impaired people are being left
in the cold. Active Accessibility is Microsoft's answer to
leveling the playing field. We at GW Micro strongly believe that
MSAA is the long-term solution. A great deal of development
effort has already been completed incorporating MSAA within
Window-Eyes."
- Doug Geoffray, Vice President of Product Development and
Support, GW Micro, Inc.
"Active Accessibility will let JAWS for Windows present screen
information more reliably and accurately, and more completely,
than ever before. As applications rely more and more on graphics
and less and less on text, this will be a key component of our
screen reader's ability to function effectively. The result will
be more productive computer users."
- Ted Henter, President, Henter-Joyce
"MSAA technology has allowed Kurzweil AI to easily voice enable
Microsoft Office 97.
Kurzweil has used MSAA standard tools to give Kurzweil VOICE
users access to
the full range of Office 97 menus and dialog boxes and their
contents. We
applaud Microsoft for developing this key enabling technology,
which will
open up voice recognition technology to a wider audience."
- Tom Paquette, Vice President of Research and Development,
Kurzweil AI
"Madenta Communications has long awaited the Active Accessibility
standard and we're excited about the doors this will open for
both developers and users of Windows software. Madenta plans to
be one of the early adopters of this technology. Our onscreen
keyboard software, "ScreenDoors," will make use of many of the
features in the standard. These include the ability to cleanly
create and intercept keyboard events from software. As more and
more mainstream developers write their software to adhere to the
Active Accessibility standard, Madenta's software will in turn
make that software that much more accessibility to people with
disabilities. We can't wait to start writing our software to take
advantage of Active Accessibility, and congratulate Microsoft on
a job well done in defining this important standard."
- Randy Marsden, President, Madenta Communications Inc.
"Active Accessibility is a giant step forward for more complete
access to the Windows 95 and NT environments and MicroTalk highly
commends Microsoft's efforts in this direction. The nature of
MSAA, however, makes it imperative that mainstream software
makers include support for it in their new applications.
MicroTalk would like to see the guidelines for Windows logo
status
expanded to include MSAA support in future applications where
feasible. The
potential for improved access with MSAA is tremendous."
- Larry Skutchan, President, MicroTalk
"SYNTHA-VOICE COMPUTERS INC. of Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada was
the first company to develop a screen reader for Microsoft
Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. As a part of our aggressive approach
to providing full access to Windows 95, SYNTHA-VOICE has been
the first to implement support for Microsoft's Active
Accessibility interface. MSAA provides a method of accessing
aspects of Windows applications that have adopted the MSAA
standard, thereby improving what information can be provided to
the blind or deaf-blind PC user. We feel that the implementation
of the MSAA standard by mainstream application developers will
further enhance the usefulness of these applications by the
synthetic speech or Braille display user of Windows
applications, and encourage these application developers to
utilize this interface."
David W. Kostyshyn, President, Syntha-Voice Computers Inc.
"ScreenPower for Windows will use Active Accessibility to provide
the pathway to easier access to applications. With MSAA we hope
to speed up our development time, and also provide blind users
better access to the innovative features in mainstream software."
- Steven Clark, Product Manager, TeleSensory
----------
For Release 6 a.m. PST
Mar. 18, 1997
Microsoft Enables Java_ for People with Disabilities
Specification Available to Java Developers on Any Platform
Los Angeles, Calif. - March 18, 1997 - Today at CSUN, a
conference and tradeshow focused on technology for people with
disabilities, Microsoft Corp. announced the Active Accessibility_
for Java_ specification. This specification enables Java
developers to easily and immediately begin to make their
applications usable by the millions of computer users with
disabilities. Until now, applications developed with Java have
been unusable with accessibility aids, which are specialized
utilities for alternate computer input and/or output that allow
people with disabilities to use computers. To eliminate this
barrier, the Active Accessibility for Java specification permits
the integration of any Java application with accessibility aids
running on a variety of computing platforms. The specification
is currently available and can be freely implemented by any Java
developer or accessibility aid manufacturer.
"The Internet holds great promise for equalizing opportunities
for people with disabilities," said Jamal Mazrui, legislative
analyst for the National Council on Disability. "The
inaccessibility of Java-based applications has been a threat to
that promise. The nice thing about Active Accessibility for Java
is that it makes it easier for businesses who are writing Java
applets to comply with legislative requirements like the
Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, and the
Telecommunications Act."
Active Accessibility for Java provides a standard set of Java
interfaces to integrate with specific accessibility aid products
or a given platform's native accessibility application
programming interfaces (APIs), making it easy for Java developers
to add cross-platform support for accessibility aids. Active
Accessibility for Java builds on Microsoft's experience with its
Active Accessibility (MSAA) API on the Windows platform. MSAA is
the native accessibility API set on the Windows platform,
providing the system files and specifying conventions for the
operating system and applications to actively cooperate with
accessibility aids. Microsoft will deliver an implementation of
the Active Accessibility for Java specification on the Windows
platform using MSAA. Further, the Microsoft Application
Foundation Classes (AFC) fully support Active Accessibility for
Java. Applications created using this state-of-the-art set of
cross platform class libraries will automatically provide
integration with accessibility aids--no additional effort is
required by developers.
"Java is an exciting new programming language. We want to ensure
applications written in Java are accessible to everyone," said
John Ludwig, vice-president of the Internet and Collaboration
Group at Microsoft. "That's why we're ensuring the Active
Accessibility for Java specification is available to all
developers on any platform."
The Active Accessibility for Java Specification is available now
for public review and comment at http://www.microsoft.com/java.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ "MSFT") is the worldwide
leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a
wide range of products and services for business and personal
use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more
enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of
personal computing every day.
#########
Microsoft, Windows, MS-DOS and Windows NT are either registered
trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States
and/or other countries.
Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their
respective owners.
For more information, press only:
Wendy Truax, Waggener Edstrom, (503) 245-0905, wendyt@wagged.com
For online product information:
Microsoft Windows Accessibility Web page:
http://microsoft.com/enable/
Microsoft Java Web page: http://www.microsoft.com/java
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional
information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at
http://www.microsoft.com/corpinfo/on Microsoft's corporate
information pages.
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