Fwd: Microsoft's New Accessibility Model to be Offered as Cross -Platform Solution for Industry

From: David Andrews (dandrews@visi.com)
Date: Fri May 27 2005 - 20:55:17 PDT


>thread-index: AcVjBE7TuOYldLukQBSWer6WEMo4hQ==
>From: "Microsoft" <10_15324_DoX19408rbiJQm2r3f1Zig@newsletters.microsoft.com>
>To: <dandrews@visi.com>
>Subject: Microsoft's New Accessibility Model to be Offered as Cross
> -Platform Solution for Industry
>Date: Fri, 27 May 2005 14:37:40 -0700
>
>Microsoft's New Accessibility Model To Be Offered as Cross-Platform Solution for Industry
>Special Edition - May 27, 2005
>
>
>
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>Microsoft's New Accessibility Model to be Offered as Cross-Platform Solution for Industry
>As a longtime leader in accessibility, Microsoft will be offering a cross-platform, royalty-free license for its new accessibility model, Microsoft® Windows® User Interface Automation, or UI Automation, to promote innovation in the assistive technology industry.
>
>"Microsoft is excited to offer UI Automation to the industry because it allows application developers to easily expose the rich semantic information needed by assistive technology products to create effective, interactive experiences for computer users. UI Automation represents a significant accessibility innovation for the industry and one that should benefit all computer users, not only Microsoft customers," explains Rob Sinclair, director of the Accessible Technology Group <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=3141662> at Microsoft.
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>Microsoft recognizes the growing demand for accessible technology and is providing the industry with this new model to advance the state-of-the-art for products that are essential for computer users with disabilities. A recent study found that 57% of computer users <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=3141663> in the United States are likely to benefit from the use of accessible technology due to experiencing mild to severe difficulties or impairments. Currently, 57 million computer users in the U.S. utilize some form of accessible technology. That number is expected to rise to 70 million in the U.S. by 2010 <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=3141664>. (1)
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>"Because the majority of computer users benefits from accessible technology, it is increasingly important for technology leaders like Microsoft to foster innovation in accessibility through industry-wide collaboration," explains Sinclair. "We're offering this model to improve collaboration across the industry and demonstrate Microsoft's commitment to accelerate innovation in accessibility," further explains Sinclair.
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>UI Automation is the successor to Microsoft Active Accessibility® and preserves the investment software companies have already made in that model. UI Automation builds on the lessons learned from Microsoft Active Accessibility to offer a complete model for sharing information about graphical user interface elements, document content, and tables of information. This work represents more than four years of research and development by Microsoft's Accessible Technology Group-the team responsible for developing Windows' accessibility support for the last twelve years.
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>Microsoft's implementation of UI Automation will be available for Microsoft® Windows® XP and the next version of the Windows desktop operating system code-named "Longhorn," scheduled to release in calendar year 2006.
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>More UI Automation Information:
>Questions and Answers About UI Automation
> <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=3141665>
>For Developers: Accessibility Framework (UI Automation) Details <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=3141666>
>
>(1)Study Commissioned by Microsoft, conducted by Forrester Research, Inc. <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=3141667> 2004.
>Data on computer users likely to benefit from accessible technology <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=3141668>.
>Data on forecasted accessible technology use <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=3141669>.
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
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>More UI Automation Information
>
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> · Questions and Answers About UI Automation <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=3141670>
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> · For Developers: Accessibility Model (UI Automation) Details <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=3141671>
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>----------------------------------------------------------------------
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>Accessibility Links
>
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> · Microsoft Accessibility <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=3141672>
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> · Microsoft Developer Accessibility <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=3141673>
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> · Newsletter Archives <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=3141674>
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> · Feedback/Contact <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=3141675>
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> · Subscribe/Unsubscribe <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=3141676>
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
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>"TextHelp's flagship product, Read&Write, is available on multiple platforms, which has required extensive development efforts to bring to market. As an industry-wide accessibility model, Microsoft's UI Automation will help reduce the complexity of designing and developing assistive technology products, allowing these development teams to spend more time investing in product innovation."
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>-Martin McKay, CIO, TextHelp, Inc.
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>
>
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