The Microsoft MSAA API cannot provide mapping for all ARIA
roles as it does not have defined roles and properties for all those
defined by The ARIA specification, the Microsoft UI Automation API can.
UI automation provides exposure of all WAI-ARIA roles and properties via
the ControlType and AriaRole properties.
Testing UI Automation AriaRole support
The testing of IE9 shows no change in support compared to IE8, any changes in results are due to fixes in testing methodology.
Testing of the AriaRole properties support requires the
Windows 7 operating system and the use of an updated inspect tool,
currently only available as part of the Windows 7 SDK. Results from
initial testing show that all possible ARIA role values are correctly
exposed via the UI automation AriaRole property, but the stated mapping of the ARIA roles to UI automation ControlType
is incomplete. I have also re-tested MSAA role mapping taking into
account roles that Microsft documented as unsupported via MSAA:
- 44 out of 49 – Of the 49 WAI-ARIA role (excluding abstract roles) values that can be mapped to MSAA: Internet explorer 9.0.8080.16413 maps 44 correctly.
- 35 out of 50 – Of the 50 WAI-ARIA role (excluding abstract roles) values that can be mapped to UI automation ControlType: Internet explorer 9.0.8080.16413 maps 35 correctly.
- 59 out of 59 – Of the 59 WAI-ARIA role (excluding abstract roles) values that can be mapped via UI automation AriaRole property: Internet explorer 9.0.8080.16413 maps 59 correctly.
Full Test Results: Comparison of ARIA roles exposed via MSAA and UI Automation in IE9
