WinDev Express GUI & Accessibility

Hello All,

I downloaded the Windev 23 Express application into Windows 10 OS, and I'm trying to check how accessible is the GUI or which accessibility technologies are appropriate to interact with the GUI

I'm using the inspect.exe tool that uses the Windows UIAutomation API (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/winauto/inspect-objects).
And I downloaded the NVDA (Non Visual Desktop Access) too, a screen reader software for blind people.

Panels and containers in general are recognized with both applications, but not all elements are properly recognized.

Example 1: Home, Project, SCM, Automatic test and Tools (subpanel elements) are detected like one unique panel and should be different elements.
Example 2: Buttons/Icons from Compilation Errors menu are not recognized.

Example 3: (I'm not sure if this is an issue from "inspect.exe" tool, these are recognized with NVDA and the mouse over the elements)
- Into Home panel, items like "Panes" or "Tile" are recognized with the inspect.exe tool (PID, Button, Name: XXX),
- but they are not displayed / updated correctly in the accessibility tree that comes from the WinDev 23 Express application.

So basically, seems that not all GUI elements are properly accessible with Windows UIAutomation API or tools like NVDA.

Can you give some advice about a specific configuration/environment or external software/technology to recognize all the GUI elements?

Regards.

Hi Fernando,

one thing you can try (I haven't tested) is to use the old style UI. Just press CTRL+SHIFT+R and the panels will be replaced by an icon bar and a classic style menu.

There is a good chance that these elements will be better recognized by your tools. The functions should all be accessible, just in a different way.

Hi,
thank you for the response,

- The menu bar of earlier versions shows a better accessibility, I can recognize it with both tools (inspect and NVDA). As you mean, the functions of WinDev Express looks represented in this menu bar.

(Still have a little problem with the GUI element hierarchy tree, it seems that the panels come from the desktop instead of the WinDev application, inspect.exe tool)

- However, the toolbar looks worse with the earlier version mode, it becomes icons not recognized as buttons. It looks like the same type of element as Example 2 (Compilation Error menu)

Is there any way to know what kind of elements are these icons / buttons?

Hi again,

I have created a small demo application to check which are the elements with wrong accessibility in Windows. (inspect.exe tool)

Window:

- Elements created from "Main menu" seem totally invisible for Windows accessibility.

Creation elements:

- Radio buttons & Check box elements, are detected as a single item instead of showing the different options.
- Tables elements seem to be detected like one list without differentiate the columns.

- Image elements are detected like "ButtonControl".

Regards,
Fernando.