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Resources for designing accessible applications

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Learn more about technologies that support accessible design. We've also included tips and links to tutorials that can help you develop accessible Windows apps and websites.

Note

For more information about how we develop products that empower everyone, see Microsoft Accessibility.

Technologies

  • Microsoft Active Accessibility A COM-based technology that improves the way accessibility aids work with applications running on Microsoft Windows. It provides dynamic-link libraries that are incorporated into the operating system and a COM interface. It also has application programming elements that provide methods for exposing information about user interface elements. For more information, see Microsoft active accessibility.

  • Microsoft .NET Speech Technologies The Microsoft .NET Speech SDK provides a set of Microsoft ASP.NET controls, a Microsoft Internet Explorer Speech add-in, sample applications, and documentation. Web developers can use these tools to create, debug, and deploy speech-enabled ASP.NET applications. The tools are integrated seamlessly into Microsoft Visual Studio, allowing developers to work in the familiar development environment. For more information, see Speech server.

  • Understanding SAMI 1.0 Microsoft Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange (SAMI) technology provides a way for developers to caption audio content for PC multimedia. For more information, see Understanding SAMI 1.0.

Windows applications

  • Walkthrough: Creating an accessible Windows-based application This article provides step-by-step instructions for including the five accessibility requirements for the "Certified for Windows" logo in a sample Windows application.

  • Guidelines for keyboard user interface design This technical article describes how to design a Windows application that users can navigate from the keyboard. For more information, see Guidelines for keyboard user interface design.

  • Console accessibility This technical article describes the APIs and events used to expose the console in Windows XP for accessibility aids. For more information, see Console accessibility.

Websites

Third-party resources

  • Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) This website provides guidelines and techniques for accessible website development. For more information, see https://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/.

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