Accessibility Update

January 2009

The Microsoft Accessibility Update provides information about accessibility including accessibility options in Microsoft products. This newsletter is sent via e-mail to subscribers in the first week of the month and is also published on the Microsoft Accessibility Web site.

Accessibility Advocate: The Inclusive Innovation Showroom

Microsoft employee Greg Smith demonstrates an accessible office configuration

How five personas and natural settings show what's possible in the world of assistive technology.

Daniel Hubbell, technical evangelist for Microsoft's accessibility group, discusses how he uses Microsoft's new Inclusive Innovation Showroom, and customer profiles, to demonstrate customer experiences of accessibility in computer programs and products.

Read this Accessibility Advocate article
Read about Microsoft's Inclusive Innovation Showroom

Quick Tips: Keyboard Shortcuts to Cut, Copy, Paste, and Undo

In Windows Vista and Windows XP, you can quickly copy and paste within a document, or between programs using 2-key keyboard shortcuts. Here's how:

First, highlight the selection you want to copy.
Press CTRL+C to Copy the selection.
Place your cursor at the position you want to insert what you have just copied.
Click the mouse at that location and press CTRL+V (the Paste keyboard shortcut).

The copied selection will then be pasted (inserted) at the new location.

If you want to back up in this process (Undo) just press CTRL+Z. Another handy keyboard shortcut is CTRL+X to Cut. After you have cut a selection, you can then paste it in another location using CTRL+V.

Cut, Copy, Paste, and Undo keyboard shortcuts work between all Microsoft Office programs too.

Find more keyboard shortcuts for Microsoft products

Assistive Technology Spotlight: Dragger—alternative input

Dragger is a utility for manipulating the left and right mouse buttons of a standard mouse or mouse emulator, such as the HeadMouse Extreme. Dragger can be used to enter mouse clicks by movement and dwell of the on-screen mouse pointer. This dwell selection function is known as AutoClick. When enabled, AutoClick watches the pointer and clicks the left mouse button when the pointer is brought to rest for the programmable dwell time. If the pointer remains motionless it will not click again. Using the Dragger toolbar this single left-click can be turned into a double-click, right-click, and left- and right-drag. The purpose of Dragger is to assist those who either have trouble clicking mouse buttons and performing drag or double-click operations, or who cannot actuate mouse buttons at all.

Product compatible with:

Windows Vista (e-mail: marketing@orin.com for availability)
Windows XP
Windows 2000
Windows ME
Windows 98
Windows 95

Accessibility solution for: Quadriplegia, Cerebral Palsy, Multiple Sclerosis, Muscular Dystrophy, ALS, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Spinal Muscular Atrophy; or any other disability where the user has limited or no use of their hands.

Manufacturer Information: Origin Instruments Corporation

For Developers

Innovation Grant Awarded to Fund Advancement of Open Source Screen Reader for Windows
Microsoft has awarded an Innovation Grant to the non-profit organization NV Access to fund advancement of NVDA, an open source screen reader for Windows. Specifically, to enable support for UI Automation, the next generation accessibility API for Windows, and to enable support for Accessible Rich Internet Applications in Internet Explorer.

The MSDN Accessibility Developer Resource Center pulls together content and resources regarding the development of accessibility products and technologies. Bookmark the location and stay connected to code samples, community sites, technical articles and documentation, upcoming events, and much more.

Accessibility Links