Method and apparatus for providing inter-application accessibility

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses for providing inter-application accessibility. Embodiments of the present invention provide a framework independent, introspective, extensible technique for describing and interacting with interfaces across application processes, in which an accessibility client dynamically discovers aspects of an element (e.g., a User Interface (UI) element) by asking for its lists of actions and attributes. For example, an accessibility client application can have framework independent access to accessibility server applications written in different frameworks, such as Cocoa, Carbon, Java, or others. Since the lists of attributes and actions are introspected at run time, an accessibility client can be dynamically extensible to handle new attributes and actions that are added to the accessibility server after the accessibility client is made. The accessibility servers have the flexibility to describe any aspect of an interface without limitation; and, the accessibility clients can interact with the accessibility servers (e.g., to perform actions) without a priori information about the interface element.