Question

I need my WinForms app to be accessible. I didn’t alter the default AccessibleRole property of any control, hence they are set as Default. JAWS identifies the controls perfectly, but not the form itself. For example, JAWS announces the text of a button/the selected item of a listbox etc, But JAWS doesn’t read the title from the title bar of the form.

So Default is out of option. I am just wondering why form alone is not read.

So I tried setting AccessibleRole property of the form to various others, and the only two choices that helped were TitleBar and Application. I did not find any difference between them as JAWS read the title bar the same. Which AccessibleRole should I ideally choose for a form? What are the differences between TitleBar and Application?

I am using .NET 4.0 and tested with JAWS 10 to 13, and makes no difference.

Answer 1

JAWS has several modes, one of which is called forms mode. Essentially JAWS ignores everything except form elements.

But JAWS doesn’t read the title from the title bar of the form.

Try pressing insert + T.

Which AccessibleRole should I ideally choose for a form?

For this question you should use TitleBar.

What are the differences between TitleBar and Application?

The TitleBar role is to identify the title bar of the current window. The Application role is to indentify the whole application or the main window of an application. I am not a .net developer, so I cannot tell you if TitleBar is a child of Application.