Choosing Which Properties to Support

The IAccessible properties provide a way for server developers to describe a wide variety of user interface elements. But not all of the properties are applicable for every kind of user interface element. Additionally, some properties provide descriptive information that is useful but not essential.

Servers must support the following properties and methods for every object:

• Name
• Role
• State
• Location and IAccessible::accHitTest
• Parent and IAccessible::accNavigate

The following properties and method must be supported if they are applicable to the object:

• KeyboardShortcut
• Value

The following properties and method must be supported if the object has children:

• Child and ChildCount
• Focus, Selection, and IAccessible::accSelect

The following properties are optional, but provide useful descriptive information about the object. The Description property is implemented to describe bitmaps and other images.

• Description
• DefaultAction and IAccessible::accDoDefaultAction
• Help
• HelpTopic