Minor revisions have been made to the MSAA framework within subsequent versions of Windows.
This version was integrated into Windows XP. (1999)įirst major revision of MSAA, adding support for Dynamic Annotation and MSAA Text. Later the system components were integrated into Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 6 and beyond, Windows 98, Windows 2000 and Windows Me. Introduced satellite DLL (oleaccrc.dll) for its international text resource library. (1998)Īdditional support added for more languages. (1997)įirst revision of MSAA that was made available to both English and international versions of Windows. The RDK was supported only in the English version of the operating system. The following Active Accessibility versions have been released: Version However, newer applications are now using Microsoft UI Automation (UIA), which was introduced in Windows Vista and the. Programmatic exposure for assistive technology applications on Windows has historically been provided through MSAA. Since Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4, MSAA has been built-into all versions of the Windows platform, and has received periodic upgrades and patches over time. The RDK included updated operating system components for Microsoft Windows 95. The SDK packaged included documentation, programming libraries, sample source code, and a Re-Distributable Kit (RDK) for accessible technology vendors to include with their products.
MSAA was originally made available in April 1997 as part of the Microsoft Active Accessibility Software Developers Kit (SDK) version 1.0. Later, the ActiveX branding was reserved for internet-specific technologies, and ActiveX Accessibility became Active Accessibility and frequently shortened to MSAA.
As part of Microsoft's ActiveX branding push in March 1996, OLE Accessibility was renamed ActiveX Accessibility (sometimes referred to as AXA) and presented as such at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in San Francisco, March 1996.