I have evaluated a lot of software for accessibility during the past 15
years or so, and during that time, I occasionally receive word of tools that
worm their way automatically through an application and assess
accessibility. In theory, some accessibility problems are amenable to
automatic detection. For example, to be screen reader accessible, a text
entry field in a dialog box would need a label of some sort. This would be a
very useful tool, and wish I had access to it!

However, even if these tools exist, I am skeptical that they would work
reliably. I recently worked with a group of developers who were repairing a
Windows-based application so that it could be used by a blind employee. The
developers labelled text entry fields correctly, but when I tested the
application with screen reading software, it could not read the labels. The
problem seemed to lie with the development tool itself, which, for reasons I
do not understand, could not reliably produce screen reader accessible
controls, even when the programmers did everything right. On the other hand,
the application was more or less keyboard accessible, and as a result, I was
able to produce smart macros for it. The macros queried the user for
information, processed the data, parceled out long sequences of keystrokes
to the application, and finally, produced screen reader accessible dialog
boxes that contained the information that the employee needed.

In general, I try to avoid speaking of "accessibility testing" as a generic
concept. Accessibility always needs qualifying: accessible to who? What is
accessible to a screen reader user is not necessarily accessible to someone
who uses text enlargement software, speech recognition, etc. etc. Getting a
handle on the degree of accessibility for a particular set of users means
testing it under actual or simulated working conditions, using specific
alternative access techniques and assistive devices. This kind of testing
inevitably uncovers other problems that degrade overall usability, so is a
very worthwhile exercise.

Alan

Alan Cantor
Cantor Access Inc.
[log in to unmask]
www.cantoraccess.com


>Hello,
>
>Are there any tools out there that would assist developers of
>Windows-based applications (i.e., using .NET) in terms of verifying their
>accessibility? There are certainly any number of tools out there to
>support web developers, but I have not come across any specific tools for
>Windows-based apps.
>
>Any help on this would be appreciated.
>
>Jennison