Charles Walter Oppermann

US Patent:

63341573, Dec 25, 2001

Filed:

Mar 11, 1997

Appl. No.:

8/815100

Inventors:

Charles Oppermann - Redmond WA
Nathaniel S. Brown - Seattle WA
Gregory C. Lowney - Redmond WA
Robert G. Atkinson - Woodinville WA
Laura J. Butler - Seattle WA
Peter Kam-Ho Wong - Mercer Island WA

Assignee:

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

International Classification:

G06F 900

US Classification:

709310

Abstract:

An architecture is provided that enables an accessibility aid to directly access and manipulate user interface elements of an application program programmatically. Moreover, such access and manipulation occurs in an application-independent manner, so that an accessibility aid utilizing the architecture can access any application program that conforms to the architecture, without the accessibility aid needing any prior knowledge of the application program or its user interface elements. User interface elements typically have both a visual representation displayed on the video display and an implementation, which is the code and data implementing the user interface element. The architecture provides an accessibility aid with direct access to the implementation of user interface elements, thus enabling the accessibility aid to both examine various characteristics of the user interface element and manipulate these characteristics, which may affect its visual representation.

US Patent:

61443778, Nov 7, 2000

Filed:

Mar 11, 1997

Appl. No.:

8/815101

Inventors:

Charles Oppermann - Redmond WA
Laura J. Butler - Seattle WA
Steven M. Donie - Seattle WA
Peter Kam-Ho Wong - Mercer Island WA

Assignee:

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

International Classification:

G06F 300

US Classification:

345335

Abstract:

An architecture is provided that enables an accessibility aid to directly access and manipulate user interface elements of an application program programmatically. Moreover, such access and manipulation occurs in an application-independent manner, so that an accessibility aid utilizing the architecture can access the user interface elements of any application program that conforms to the architecture, without the accessibility aid needing any prior knowledge of the application program or its user interface elements. User interface elements typically have both a visual representation displayed on the video display and an implementation, which is the code and data implementing the user interface element. The architecture provides an accessibility aid with direct access to the implementation of user interface elements, thus enabling the accessibility aid to both examine various characteristics of the user interface element and manipulate these characteristics, which may affect its visual representation. Although this architecture provides many benefits to accessibility aids, some application programs predate the preferred architecture and are thus unable to support this architecture.