Does UI Automation handle the Narrator "dismiss" gesture?

Question

I'm creating a UIA provider in C++ for Narrator and would like to support any dismiss actions (if they exist). In the Narrator guide it says "Triple-tap with two fingers - Dismiss context menus (imitating the Escape key)".

1. Does this mean the gesture is exclusively for native context menus?

a. If so, is there a different Narrator command for a more general dismiss or is it just intended that handling the escape key-press captures that functionality?

b. If not, is there a specific control type or pattern that receives the gesture? (I've unsuccessfully tried Window and Menu Bar.)

In other words, is there a Narrator-action/UIA equivalent to macOS's VoiceOver-dismiss-action/accessibilityPerformEscape?

Answer 1

Hi

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A!

Narrator is a screen-reading application that's built into Windows 11. Its gesture operations are managed by the system.

Microsoft UI Automation is an accessibility framework that enables Windows applications to provide and consume programmatic information about user interfaces (UIs). UI automation is primarily used to interact with the UI elements of an application.

UI Automation doesn't handle the Narrator's gesture operations directly.

If you want to handle Narrator's gestures via UI automation, you could try to do this by simulating keyboard or mouse actions.

Thank you

Jeanine