Microsoft Releases Tools to Boost Web Accessibility

Microsoft makes its accessibility model freely available to help improve access to technology for people with disabilities. Web accessibility refers to the practice of making websites usable by people of all abilities and disabilities. When sites are correctly designed, developed and edited, all users can have equal access to information and functionality. For example, when a site is coded with semantically meaningful HTML, with textual equivalents provided for images and with links named meaningfully, this helps blind users using text-to-speech software and/or text-to-Braille hardware.

From the press release:

Microsoft Corp. committed to contribute its UI Automation specification to the Accessibility Interoperability Alliance (AIA), a new engineering working group dedicated to making it easier for developers to create software, hardware and Web-based products that are accessible to people with disabilities. The UI Automation specification describes Microsoft’s latest accessibility framework technology, and will help developers include advanced accessibility functionality into implementations designed for use on any operating system.

=> Read more: Microsoft Provides Accessibility Programming Model to Industry Group Devoted to Interoperability and Accessibility