The development of a ‘Brief history of browser accessibility support‘ was prompted by Google’s Evolution of the Web interactive infographic. I was dazzled by its coolness, but noticed that amongst all the web technologies ARIA 1.0 was not to be found. ARIA is included in the makeup of the open web stack.
This got me thinking that it would be useful to have an infographic showing the timeline for implementations of the various accessibility APIs and accessibility related technical specifications. Below is a rather large thumbnail version of the (non interactive infographic, based on the ‘Evolution of the Web’). There is also a full size version and related timeline available.
Note: If you have more accurate information on any content in the graphic or timeline please speak up!
Brief history of browser accessibility support infographic
Brief history of browser accessibility support infographic and timeline.
Accessibility API and Specification support table
The following table attempts to provide an at a glance overview of where support is at now in 2011. It has been derived from information available on the web, ad hoc testing, user reports and any other sources I could find.
Note: If you have more accurate information please speak up!
table legend
Note: The table refers to the current versions of browsers as of 14/07/2012.
Glossary of terms (used in the table and infographic)
- ARIA
- Accessible Rich Internet Applications 1.0 (cross platform)
- AT-SPI
- Assistive Technology Service Provider Interface (Linux)
- Ax/uiA
- The Mac OS X Accessibility Protocol (Mac OS X)
- Introduction to Accessibility Programming Guidelines for Cocoa (Mac OS X)
- UIAccessibility Protocol Reference (iOS)
- IA2
- Iaccessible2 (Windows/Linux)
- MSAA
- Microsoft Active Accessibility (Windows)
- UAAG 1.0
- User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
- UIA
- Microsoft UI Automation (Windows)
