5 ms·

I just wanted to say thanks. :) As a person with low vision (and a heavy VS user), I'm grateful that there was so much attention to detail in the development o

by davux 15y ago

I just wanted to say thanks. :) As a person with low vision (and a heavy VS user), I'm grateful that there was so much attention to detail in the development of VS with respect to accessibility. I don't know if it has to do with US government ADA requirements or not, but I'm glad that across the board Microsoft tends to build accessible software.

aaronbrethorst 15y ago
> I don't know if it has to do with US government ADA requirements or not, but I'm glad that across the board Microsoft tends to build accessible software. For Visual Studio 2005, at least, this certainly didn't hurt, but we also had an incredibly dedicated and passionate group of people working on this issue, putting together brown bags educating developer division on MSAA and building accessible software, bringing in the creators of JAWS, logging bugs against every nook and cranny of the product, etc. etc. I wish I could remember the names of everyone who was involved in this, but Sara Ford was instrumental. I'm glad I got to be a part of the whole thing, even though my contributions were focused on project management-type stuff.
- saraford 15y ago
  Ah, good times! It's always great to hear kind words about the accessibility work with Visual Studio. When i first joined the Accessibility effort back in 2001, I coded in Visual Studio for 3 months without a monitor. I'll never forget the nightmares of hearing VS talk to me in my sleep :) I'm embarrassed I can't remember their names either. It was a great group of people. (Hey Arron! Hey Lars!) But yes, the accessibility virtual team consisted of about 50 people across the division all using JAWS, Window Eyes, and other programs to open bugs. Really good times.
  - aaronbrethorst 15y ago
    Hi Sara! :)
larsberg 15y ago
Thank you! And just so you know, this comment made my weekend. The ADA requirements are pretty minimal -- it just has to "work." All the work we did to, for example, make the reader's navigation order sensible within the tree views for the solution explorer and class browser was because we wanted it to be good. And because Sara Ford would just open another bug if we didn't fix it right, as mentioned in one other comment :-)

by davux 15y ago

aaronbrethorst 15y ago

> I don't know if it has to do with US government ADA requirements or not, but I'm glad that across the board Microsoft tends to build accessible software. For Visual Studio 2005, at least, this certainly didn't hurt, but we also had an incredibly dedicated and passionate group of people working on this issue, putting together brown bags educating developer division on MSAA and building accessible software, bringing in the creators of JAWS, logging bugs against every nook and cranny of the product, etc. etc. I wish I could remember the names of everyone who was involved in this, but Sara Ford was instrumental. I'm glad I got to be a part of the whole thing, even though my contributions were focused on project management-type stuff.

saraford 15y ago
Ah, good times! It's always great to hear kind words about the accessibility work with Visual Studio. When i first joined the Accessibility effort back in 2001, I coded in Visual Studio for 3 months without a monitor. I'll never forget the nightmares of hearing VS talk to me in my sleep :) I'm embarrassed I can't remember their names either. It was a great group of people. (Hey Arron! Hey Lars!) But yes, the accessibility virtual team consisted of about 50 people across the division all using JAWS, Window Eyes, and other programs to open bugs. Really good times.
- aaronbrethorst 15y ago
  Hi Sara! :)

larsberg 15y ago

Thank you! And just so you know, this comment made my weekend. The ADA requirements are pretty minimal -- it just has to "work." All the work we did to, for example, make the reader's navigation order sensible within the tree views for the solution explorer and class browser was because we wanted it to be good. And because Sara Ford would just open another bug if we didn't fix it right, as mentioned in one other comment :-)