WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: AT that get their information from the Accessibility Tree, other than screenreaders

for

From:
Date: Sep 19, 2017 6:21AM

On 19/09/2017 11:03, Roel Van Gils wrote:
> Screenreaders such as Jaws, NVDA, VoiceOver and WindowEyes, all rely on the Accessibility Tree that the OS exposes to them. Screenreaders narrate what's on the screen and offer ways to interact with it.
>
> The 'web content' inside of a browser tab is in fact only one 'branch' of that tree. To us, 'web people', that's the most important and interesting branch of that tree. It's the only branch we can directly manipulate using semantic markup and WAI-ARIA attributes.

As developers we can only manipulate the DOM tree. The browser is then
responsible for taking the DOM tree and using it to create the
accessibility tree.

>
> Now, when learning and (teaching) about techniques like ARIA, we often mention that ARIA enhances the experience for 'users of assistive technology, *such as* screenreaders'. I'm wondering if that's entirely accurate. Does anyone know of any other types of Assistive Technology (hardware or software, aimed at users with any type of disability) that gets is information from the 'web content branches' of the OS Accessibility Tree?

All AT use the accessibility tree. This includes speech recognition
tools, screen magnifiers, screen readers, and quite possibly others besides.

Use of the accessibility tree is not the same as support for ARIA
though. For the moment only screen readers support ARIA with any
conviction. The exception is Dragon Naturally Speaking 13, which has
limited support for ARIA too.


> I'm eager to broaden my knowledge on this subject :)

Hope this helps.

Léonie.

--
@LeonieWatson @ <EMAIL REMOVED> tink.uk carpe diem