The Mac OS X Accessibility Protocol
In Mac OS X version 10.2, Apple introduced the accessibility framework. This framework includes:
The accessibility protocol that both Carbon and Cocoa frameworks implement to allow applications to represent themselves to assistive applications and technologies
APIs an assistive application uses to drive the user interface of another application running in Mac OS X
This chapter introduces the accessibility protocol. It describes:
The model that represents accessible applications to assistive technologies
The accessibility object that represents user interface objects
Some of the ways an assistive application interacts with an accessible application
If you’re an application developer, you should read this chapter to learn about the Mac OS X accessibility protocol. Then, if you’re ready to access-enable your application, you should read Accessibility Programming Guidelines for Cocoa or Accessibility Programming Guidelines for Carbon.
Important: If your application uses only standard, noncustom Carbon or Cocoa objects, most of your application is already accessible. There remain a few things you must do, however. This chapter provides fundamental information about the accessibility protocol that helps you understand the reasons for these things.
Note: Java developers should implement the Java Accessibility API (the javax.accessibility package) to ensure their applications are accessible (both Swing and AWT interfaces are accessible). See for more information on this API, see the Java 1.4.2 API reference in the Java Reference Library.
If you are developing an assistive application, you should read this chapter to learn how accessible applications represent themselves in Mac OS X. You’ll find out what information your assistive application can expect to get from an accessible application.
Contents:
The Accessibility Model
The Accessibility Object
Communication With Accessibility Objects
An Example of Accessibility
Last updated: 2007-12-11
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