Resources for Designing Accessible Applications

Note

This article applies to Visual Studio 2015. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here

Use the following links to find information about technologies that support accessible design as well as tips and examples for developing accessible Windows applications and Web sites. General information on accessibility can be found online at https://www.microsoft.com/enable/.

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 as well as a COM interface and application programming elements that provide reliable methods for exposing information about user interface elements. For more information, see https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/desktop/dd373592(v=vs.85).aspx.

  • Microsoft .NET Speech Technologies The Microsoft .NET Speech SDK is a set of Microsoft ASP.NET controls, a Microsoft Internet Explorer Speech add-in, sample applications and documentation that allows Web developers to create, debug and deploy speech-enabled ASP.NET applications. The tools are integrated seamlessly into Microsoft Visual Studio, allowing developers to leverage the familiar development environment. For more information, see https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/ms950383.aspx.

  • 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 https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/ms971327.aspx.

Windows Applications

Web Sites

Third-party Resources

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

See Also

Accessibility Features of Visual Studio