gecko-dev/accessible/accessible-docs.html

<html>
<head>
<title>
  How the Accessible Module works
</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>How the Accessible module (accessibility.dll) works</h1>
<ul>
<p>
See also: 
<a href="http://www.mozilla.org/projects/ui/accessibility/vendors-win.html">Gecko Info for Windows Accessibility Vendors</a>, a primer for vendors of 3rd party accessibility software, on how to use our MSAA and other relevant API's.
</p>
<p>
The <a href="http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/accessible/">Accessible module</a> is where we implement support for the <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/enable/msaa/">Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) API</a> 
(<a href="http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12952">bug 12952</a>). 
Support for Sun's <a href="http://www.sun.com/access/gnome/">Gnome Accessibility API</a> is part of our future plans as well.
</p>
</ul>
<h2>What is MSAA?</h2>
<ul>
<p>
A 3rd part accessibility aid, such as a screen reader, wants to track what's happening inside Mozilla. It needs to know about
focus changes and other events, and it needs to know whtat data nodes there are in the layout tree. 
Using this information,
the screen reader will speak out loud important changes to the document or UI, and allow the user to track
where they navigate. Some screen readers also magnify text and images in the currently focused area, and others
show information on a <a href="http://www.audiodata.de/e/produkte/pc/lapbraille/">refreshable braille display</a>.
</p>
<p>
In Windows, accesibility aids acquires the necessary information to do this using hacks and MSAA. MSAA is supposed 
to be the "right way" for accessibility aids to get information, but sometimes the hacks are more effective.
For example, screen readers look for screen draws of a vertical blinking line, to determine the location of the caret.
Without doing this, screen readers would not be able to let the user know where there caret has moved to in most programs,
because so many applications do not use the system caret (ours is an example). This is so commonly done, that 
no one even bothers to support the MSAA caret, because the hack works.
</p>
<p>
MSAA provides information in two different ways: 
<ol>
<li>a COM interface (IAccessible) that allows applications to expose the tree of data nodes that make up 
each window in the user interface currently being interacted with and</li>
<li> a set of system messages
 that confer accessibility-related events such as focus changes, changes to document content and alerts.</li>
 </ol>
</p>
<p>
To really learn about MSAA, you need to download
the entire <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/enable/msaa/download.htm">MSAA SDK</a>. 
Without downloading the SDK, you won't get the complete documentation.
The SDK also contains some very useful tools, such as the Accessible Event Watcher, which shows what accessible 
events are being generated by a given piece of software. The Accessible Explorer and Inspect Object tools 
show the tree of data nodes the Accessible object is exposing through COM.
</p>
</ul>
<h2>IAccessible Interface</h2>
<ul>
<p>
The IAccessible interface is used in a tree of IAccessible's, each one representing a data node, similar to a DOM.
</p>
<p>
Here are the methods supported in IAccessible:
<ul>
    <li>get_accParent: Get the parent of an IAccessible.</li>
    <li>get_accChildCount: Get the number of children of an IAccesible.</li>
    <li>get_accChild: Get the child of an Iaccessible.</li>
    <li>get_accName: Get the "name" of the IAccessible, for example the name of a button, checkbox or menuitem.</li>
    <li>get_accValue: Get the "value" of the IAccessible, for example a number in a slider, a URL for a link, the text a user entered in a field.</li>
    <li>get_accDescription: Get a long description of the current IAccessible. This is not really too useful.</li>
    <li>get_accRole: Get an enumerated value representing what this IAccessible is used for, for example.</li>
	  is it a link, static text, editable text, a checkbox, or a table cell, etc.</li>
    <li>get_accState: a 32 bit field representing possible on/off states, such as focused, fousable, selected, selectable, visible, protected (for passwords), 
checked, etc. </li>
    <li>get_accHelp: Get context sensitive help for the IAccessible.</li>
    <li>get_accHelpTopic: We don't use this, it's only if the Windows help system is used.</li>
    <li>get_accKeyboardShortcut: What is the keyboard shortcut for this IAccessible.</li>
    <li>get_accFocus: Which child is focused?</li>
    <li>get_accSelection: Which children of this item are selected?</li>
    <li>get_accDefaultAction: Get a description or name of the default action for this component, such as "jump" for links.</li>

    <li>accSelect: Select the item associated with this IAccessible.</li>
    <li>accLocation: Get the x,y coordinates, and the height and width of this IAccessible node.</li>
    <li>accNavigate: Navigate up, down, left or right from this IAccessible.</li>
    <li>accHitTest: Find out what IAccessible exists and a specific coordinate.</li>
    <li>accDoDefaultAction: Perform the action described by get_accDefaultAction.</li>
    <li>put_accName: Change the name.</li>
    <li>put_accValue: Change the value.</li>
</ul>
</p>
</ul>
<h2>The Basics</h2>
<ul>
<p>
Rather than directly implement IAccessible with an Accessible class, we have chosen to proxy to our own cross-platform interface,
called nsIAccessible, which is more robust. It has the capability of supporting other new accessibility API's such
as Sun's Gnome Accessiblity API. The nsIAccessible interface is implemented by a variety of classes for each of the
various objects in HTML. Each class is tailored to the specific abilities and properties of the HTML objects it applies to.
</p>
<p>
The first thing that happens when an accessibility aid wants to watch our application is calls the Windows API function
AccessibleObjectFromWindow(). This in turns sends the window in question
a <a href="http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/search?string=WM_GETOBJECT">WM_GETOBJECT</a> message requesting an IAccessible for the window. 
In our case, this event is received in mozilla/widget/src/windows/nsWindow.cpp.
We send back an IAccessible interface that represents that root window. The accessibility aid will use
that first IAccessible to reach rest of the IAccessible hierarchy, by asking for it's children IAccessibles, asking the children for the 
grandchildren IAccessibles, and so on. Until this WM_GETOBJECT message is processed, the accessibility.dll is not loaded,
so there is almost zero overhead for accessibility in Mozilla.
</p>
</ul>

<h2>How the IAccessible's are Created</h2>
<ul>
<p>
To create the root IAccessible for a window the first time it gets the <a href="http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/search?string=WM_GETOBJECT">WM_GETOBJECT</a> message in, 
nsWindow.cpp first generates an internal event 
called <a href="http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/search?string=NS_GETACCESSIBLE">NS_GETACCESSIBLE</a>, 
which is handled in nsFrame.cpp via the creation of an nsRootAccessible implementation of the nsIAccessible interface.
The first IAccessible is then created by instantiating a RootAccessible class. This RootAccessible is also cached by
the nsWindow it's for, so that any additional WM_GETOBJECT messages use the same RootAccessible.
The RootAccessible class used to implement IAccessible here is slightly different from the normal Accessible class
that's used, in that it keeps track of event data.
RootAccessible and Accessible  are both implemented 
in <a href="http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/widget/source/windows/Accessible.cpp">
mozilla/widget/src/windows/Accessible.cpp</a>).
</P>
</ul>
<h2>The Real Power Behind IAccessible's</h2>
<ul>
<p>The implementations of IAccessible (Accessible and RootAccessible), don't know anything about Mozilla
objects. They merely proxy to our cross platform accessibility classes, which all have an nsIAccessible interface.
</h2>
<p>
The base implementation for nsIAccessible is called nsAccessible. It has default implementations for all the
nsIAccessible methods. It also knows how
to walk Mozilla's content DOM and frame tree, exposing only the objects that are needed for accessibility. 
Essentially, nsAccessible knows what it needs to expose by asking each DOM node's primary frame for 
an nsIAccessible, using the GetAccessible() method. If it gets one, it's considered an accessible object. 
A frame that wishes to return
an nsIAccessible GetAccessible() is called, creates one of the correct type on the fly using 
nsIAccessibilityService methods built for that purpose.
</p>
<p>
The specific implementations
of nsIAccessible for each widget or content type inherit from nsAccessible.
Each implementation then overrides those methods
it wishes to implement, and does nothing for those methods it wants the default behavior for.
For example, the default behavior for nsIAccessible::getAccFirstChild is to
instantial a nsDOMTreeWalker, and ask it for the first child. However, nsImageAccessible overrides getAccFirstChild,
returning the first area of an image map if there is one, otherwise nsnull.
</p>

</ul>
<h2>MSAA Events</h2>
<ul>
<p>
When an accessibility-related event occurs within an application such as Mozilla, it must use NotifyWinEvent from
the Win32 API. NotifyWinEvent is passed arguments for the window the event occured in, and the number of the child
within that window. Accessibility aids use the Win32 call SetWinEventHook() to register as a listener for these events.
</p>
<p>
The accessibility aid is choose which events it is interested in learning more about by using the Win32 API call 
AccessibleObjectFromEvent, requesting the IAccessible to the node corresponding to the 
child number that had been indicated from NotifyWinEvent(). This ends up asking our RootAccessible for the child
IAccessible that matches the window handle and child id we indicated through NotofyWinEvent().
</p>
<p>
In Mozilla, this creates a problem. We cannot 
keep track of a child number for every important accessible node in a document. We deal with this by generating fake
child IDs for the most recent accessibile events that we have generated, in a circular array.
</p>
<p>
Since there is a RootAccessible for each top level window that might generate MSAA events, that's where we do the bookkeeping
for these events and their nsIAccessible's. Whenever NotifyWinEvent() is called, a new fake ID is generated (We use 
negative numbers for the fake IDs). When the callback comes to request the IAccessible for that child number,
we check the circular array for that ID, and voila, we have the corresponding nsIAccessible to proxy.
</p>
<p>
Every RootAccessible has an nsRootAccessible which is an nsIAccessibleEventReceiver. The RootAccessible 
uses this to register itself as an nsIAccessibleEventListener. In the end, nsRootAccessible registers itself as a listener 
of Mozilla's internal and DOM events. It's HandleEvent routine translates these events into MSAA events, and passes them along to 
with an nsIAccessible to the original RootAccessible::HandleEvent 
which turns that nsIAccessible into a NotifyWinEvent call, complete with a fake child ID.
</p>
<p>
Most MSAA events aren't utilized by accessibility aids. Therefore we implement only the handful that matter.
The most important event is the focus event, followed by name, state and value change events.
</p>
</ul>
</body>
</html>
Landing accessibility -r aarol, jgaunt -sr brendan 2001-05-11 21:11:38 +00:00			`<html>`
			`<head>`
			`<title>`
			`How the Accessible Module works`
			`</title>`
			`</head>`
			`<body>`
			`<h1>How the Accessible module (accessibility.dll) works</h1>`
			`<ul>`
			`<p>`
bug #86517 Landing of Accessible_052901_Branch4 sr=waterson r= lots, see bug 2001-06-30 00:25:09 +00:00			`See also:`
			`<a href="http://www.mozilla.org/projects/ui/accessibility/vendors-win.html">Gecko Info for Windows Accessibility Vendors</a>, a primer for vendors of 3rd party accessibility software, on how to use our MSAA and other relevant API's.`
			`</p>`
			`<p>`
Landing accessibility -r aarol, jgaunt -sr brendan 2001-05-11 21:11:38 +00:00			`The <a href="http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/accessible/">Accessible module</a> is where we implement support for the <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/enable/msaa/">Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) API</a>`
			`(<a href="http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12952">bug 12952</a>).`
			`Support for Sun's <a href="http://www.sun.com/access/gnome/">Gnome Accessibility API</a> is part of our future plans as well.`
			`</p>`
			`</ul>`
			`<h2>What is MSAA?</h2>`
			`<ul>`
			`<p>`
			`A 3rd part accessibility aid, such as a screen reader, wants to track what's happening inside Mozilla. It needs to know about`
			`focus changes and other events, and it needs to know whtat data nodes there are in the layout tree.`
			`Using this information,`
			`the screen reader will speak out loud important changes to the document or UI, and allow the user to track`
			`where they navigate. Some screen readers also magnify text and images in the currently focused area, and others`
			`show information on a <a href="http://www.audiodata.de/e/produkte/pc/lapbraille/">refreshable braille display</a>.`
			`</p>`
			`<p>`
			`In Windows, accesibility aids acquires the necessary information to do this using hacks and MSAA. MSAA is supposed`
			`to be the "right way" for accessibility aids to get information, but sometimes the hacks are more effective.`
			`For example, screen readers look for screen draws of a vertical blinking line, to determine the location of the caret.`
			`Without doing this, screen readers would not be able to let the user know where there caret has moved to in most programs,`
			`because so many applications do not use the system caret (ours is an example). This is so commonly done, that`
			`no one even bothers to support the MSAA caret, because the hack works.`
			`</p>`
			`<p>`
			`MSAA provides information in two different ways:`
			`<ol>`
			`<li>a COM interface (IAccessible) that allows applications to expose the tree of data nodes that make up`
			`each window in the user interface currently being interacted with and</li>`
			`<li> a set of system messages`
			`that confer accessibility-related events such as focus changes, changes to document content and alerts.</li>`
			`</ol>`
			`</p>`
			`<p>`
			`To really learn about MSAA, you need to download`
			`the entire <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/enable/msaa/download.htm">MSAA SDK</a>.`
			`Without downloading the SDK, you won't get the complete documentation.`
			`The SDK also contains some very useful tools, such as the Accessible Event Watcher, which shows what accessible`
			`events are being generated by a given piece of software. The Accessible Explorer and Inspect Object tools`
			`show the tree of data nodes the Accessible object is exposing through COM.`
			`</p>`
			`</ul>`
			`<h2>IAccessible Interface</h2>`
			`<ul>`
			`<p>`
			`The IAccessible interface is used in a tree of IAccessible's, each one representing a data node, similar to a DOM.`
			`</p>`
			`<p>`
			`Here are the methods supported in IAccessible:`
			`<ul>`
			`<li>get_accParent: Get the parent of an IAccessible.</li>`
			`<li>get_accChildCount: Get the number of children of an IAccesible.</li>`
			`<li>get_accChild: Get the child of an Iaccessible.</li>`
			`<li>get_accName: Get the "name" of the IAccessible, for example the name of a button, checkbox or menuitem.</li>`
			`<li>get_accValue: Get the "value" of the IAccessible, for example a number in a slider, a URL for a link, the text a user entered in a field.</li>`
			`<li>get_accDescription: Get a long description of the current IAccessible. This is not really too useful.</li>`
			`<li>get_accRole: Get an enumerated value representing what this IAccessible is used for, for example.</li>`
			`is it a link, static text, editable text, a checkbox, or a table cell, etc.</li>`
			`<li>get_accState: a 32 bit field representing possible on/off states, such as focused, fousable, selected, selectable, visible, protected (for passwords),`
			`checked, etc. </li>`
			`<li>get_accHelp: Get context sensitive help for the IAccessible.</li>`
			`<li>get_accHelpTopic: We don't use this, it's only if the Windows help system is used.</li>`
			`<li>get_accKeyboardShortcut: What is the keyboard shortcut for this IAccessible.</li>`
bug #86517 Landing of Accessible_052901_Branch4 sr=waterson r= lots, see bug 2001-06-30 00:25:09 +00:00			`<li>get_accFocus: Which child is focused?</li>`
			`<li>get_accSelection: Which children of this item are selected?</li>`
Landing accessibility -r aarol, jgaunt -sr brendan 2001-05-11 21:11:38 +00:00			`<li>get_accDefaultAction: Get a description or name of the default action for this component, such as "jump" for links.</li>`

			`<li>accSelect: Select the item associated with this IAccessible.</li>`
			`<li>accLocation: Get the x,y coordinates, and the height and width of this IAccessible node.</li>`
			`<li>accNavigate: Navigate up, down, left or right from this IAccessible.</li>`
			`<li>accHitTest: Find out what IAccessible exists and a specific coordinate.</li>`
			`<li>accDoDefaultAction: Perform the action described by get_accDefaultAction.</li>`
			`<li>put_accName: Change the name.</li>`
			`<li>put_accValue: Change the value.</li>`
			`</ul>`
			`</p>`
bug #86517 Landing of Accessible_052901_Branch4 sr=waterson r= lots, see bug 2001-06-30 00:25:09 +00:00			`</ul>`
			`<h2>The Basics</h2>`
			`<ul>`
Landing accessibility -r aarol, jgaunt -sr brendan 2001-05-11 21:11:38 +00:00			`<p>`
bug #86517 Landing of Accessible_052901_Branch4 sr=waterson r= lots, see bug 2001-06-30 00:25:09 +00:00			`Rather than directly implement IAccessible with an Accessible class, we have chosen to proxy to our own cross-platform interface,`
Landing accessibility -r aarol, jgaunt -sr brendan 2001-05-11 21:11:38 +00:00			`called nsIAccessible, which is more robust. It has the capability of supporting other new accessibility API's such`
bug #86517 Landing of Accessible_052901_Branch4 sr=waterson r= lots, see bug 2001-06-30 00:25:09 +00:00			`as Sun's Gnome Accessiblity API. The nsIAccessible interface is implemented by a variety of classes for each of the`
			`various objects in HTML. Each class is tailored to the specific abilities and properties of the HTML objects it applies to.`
Landing accessibility -r aarol, jgaunt -sr brendan 2001-05-11 21:11:38 +00:00			`</p>`
			`<p>`
bug #86517 Landing of Accessible_052901_Branch4 sr=waterson r= lots, see bug 2001-06-30 00:25:09 +00:00			`The first thing that happens when an accessibility aid wants to watch our application is calls the Windows API function`
			`AccessibleObjectFromWindow(). This in turns sends the window in question`
			`a <a href="http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/search?string=WM_GETOBJECT">WM_GETOBJECT</a> message requesting an IAccessible for the window.`
			`In our case, this event is received in mozilla/widget/src/windows/nsWindow.cpp.`
Landing accessibility -r aarol, jgaunt -sr brendan 2001-05-11 21:11:38 +00:00			`We send back an IAccessible interface that represents that root window. The accessibility aid will use`
bug #86517 Landing of Accessible_052901_Branch4 sr=waterson r= lots, see bug 2001-06-30 00:25:09 +00:00			`that first IAccessible to reach rest of the IAccessible hierarchy, by asking for it's children IAccessibles, asking the children for the`
Landing accessibility -r aarol, jgaunt -sr brendan 2001-05-11 21:11:38 +00:00			`grandchildren IAccessibles, and so on. Until this WM_GETOBJECT message is processed, the accessibility.dll is not loaded,`
			`so there is almost zero overhead for accessibility in Mozilla.`
			`</p>`
bug #86517 Landing of Accessible_052901_Branch4 sr=waterson r= lots, see bug 2001-06-30 00:25:09 +00:00			`</ul>`

			`<h2>How the IAccessible's are Created</h2>`
			`<ul>`
Landing accessibility -r aarol, jgaunt -sr brendan 2001-05-11 21:11:38 +00:00			`<p>`
bug #86517 Landing of Accessible_052901_Branch4 sr=waterson r= lots, see bug 2001-06-30 00:25:09 +00:00			`To create the root IAccessible for a window the first time it gets the <a href="http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/search?string=WM_GETOBJECT">WM_GETOBJECT</a> message in,`
			`nsWindow.cpp first generates an internal event`
			`called <a href="http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/search?string=NS_GETACCESSIBLE">NS_GETACCESSIBLE</a>,`
			`which is handled in nsFrame.cpp via the creation of an nsRootAccessible implementation of the nsIAccessible interface.`
			`The first IAccessible is then created by instantiating a RootAccessible class. This RootAccessible is also cached by`
			`the nsWindow it's for, so that any additional WM_GETOBJECT messages use the same RootAccessible.`
			`The RootAccessible class used to implement IAccessible here is slightly different from the normal Accessible class`
			`that's used, in that it keeps track of event data.`
			`RootAccessible and Accessible are both implemented`
Landing accessibility -r aarol, jgaunt -sr brendan 2001-05-11 21:11:38 +00:00			`in <a href="http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/widget/source/windows/Accessible.cpp">`
			`mozilla/widget/src/windows/Accessible.cpp</a>).`
			`</P>`
bug #86517 Landing of Accessible_052901_Branch4 sr=waterson r= lots, see bug 2001-06-30 00:25:09 +00:00			`</ul>`
			`<h2>The Real Power Behind IAccessible's</h2>`
			`<ul>`
			`<p>The implementations of IAccessible (Accessible and RootAccessible), don't know anything about Mozilla`
			`objects. They merely proxy to our cross platform accessibility classes, which all have an nsIAccessible interface.`
			`</h2>`
Landing accessibility -r aarol, jgaunt -sr brendan 2001-05-11 21:11:38 +00:00			`<p>`
bug #86517 Landing of Accessible_052901_Branch4 sr=waterson r= lots, see bug 2001-06-30 00:25:09 +00:00			`The base implementation for nsIAccessible is called nsAccessible. It has default implementations for all the`
			`nsIAccessible methods. It also knows how`
Landing accessibility -r aarol, jgaunt -sr brendan 2001-05-11 21:11:38 +00:00			`to walk Mozilla's content DOM and frame tree, exposing only the objects that are needed for accessibility.`
bug #86517 Landing of Accessible_052901_Branch4 sr=waterson r= lots, see bug 2001-06-30 00:25:09 +00:00			`Essentially, nsAccessible knows what it needs to expose by asking each DOM node's primary frame for`
			`an nsIAccessible, using the GetAccessible() method. If it gets one, it's considered an accessible object.`
			`A frame that wishes to return`
			`an nsIAccessible GetAccessible() is called, creates one of the correct type on the fly using`
			`nsIAccessibilityService methods built for that purpose.`
Landing accessibility -r aarol, jgaunt -sr brendan 2001-05-11 21:11:38 +00:00			`</p>`
			`<p>`
			`The specific implementations`
bug #86517 Landing of Accessible_052901_Branch4 sr=waterson r= lots, see bug 2001-06-30 00:25:09 +00:00			`of nsIAccessible for each widget or content type inherit from nsAccessible.`
			`Each implementation then overrides those methods`
Landing accessibility -r aarol, jgaunt -sr brendan 2001-05-11 21:11:38 +00:00			`it wishes to implement, and does nothing for those methods it wants the default behavior for.`
			`For example, the default behavior for nsIAccessible::getAccFirstChild is to`
bug #86517 Landing of Accessible_052901_Branch4 sr=waterson r= lots, see bug 2001-06-30 00:25:09 +00:00			`instantial a nsDOMTreeWalker, and ask it for the first child. However, nsImageAccessible overrides getAccFirstChild,`
			`returning the first area of an image map if there is one, otherwise nsnull.`
Landing accessibility -r aarol, jgaunt -sr brendan 2001-05-11 21:11:38 +00:00			`</p>`

			`</ul>`
			`<h2>MSAA Events</h2>`
			`<ul>`
			`<p>`
			`When an accessibility-related event occurs within an application such as Mozilla, it must use NotifyWinEvent from`
			`the Win32 API. NotifyWinEvent is passed arguments for the window the event occured in, and the number of the child`
bug #86517 Landing of Accessible_052901_Branch4 sr=waterson r= lots, see bug 2001-06-30 00:25:09 +00:00			`within that window. Accessibility aids use the Win32 call SetWinEventHook() to register as a listener for these events.`
			`</p>`
			`<p>`
			`The accessibility aid is choose which events it is interested in learning more about by using the Win32 API call`
			`AccessibleObjectFromEvent, requesting the IAccessible to the node corresponding to the`
			`child number that had been indicated from NotifyWinEvent(). This ends up asking our RootAccessible for the child`
			`IAccessible that matches the window handle and child id we indicated through NotofyWinEvent().`
Landing accessibility -r aarol, jgaunt -sr brendan 2001-05-11 21:11:38 +00:00			`</p>`
			`<p>`
bug #86517 Landing of Accessible_052901_Branch4 sr=waterson r= lots, see bug 2001-06-30 00:25:09 +00:00			`In Mozilla, this creates a problem. We cannot`
Landing accessibility -r aarol, jgaunt -sr brendan 2001-05-11 21:11:38 +00:00			`keep track of a child number for every important accessible node in a document. We deal with this by generating fake`
			`child IDs for the most recent accessibile events that we have generated, in a circular array.`
			`</p>`
			`<p>`
			`Since there is a RootAccessible for each top level window that might generate MSAA events, that's where we do the bookkeeping`
bug #86517 Landing of Accessible_052901_Branch4 sr=waterson r= lots, see bug 2001-06-30 00:25:09 +00:00			`for these events and their nsIAccessible's. Whenever NotifyWinEvent() is called, a new fake ID is generated (We use`
Landing accessibility -r aarol, jgaunt -sr brendan 2001-05-11 21:11:38 +00:00			`negative numbers for the fake IDs). When the callback comes to request the IAccessible for that child number,`
			`we check the circular array for that ID, and voila, we have the corresponding nsIAccessible to proxy.`
			`</p>`
			`<p>`
			`Every RootAccessible has an nsRootAccessible which is an nsIAccessibleEventReceiver. The RootAccessible`
			`uses this to register itself as an nsIAccessibleEventListener. In the end, nsRootAccessible registers itself as a listener`
			`of Mozilla's internal and DOM events. It's HandleEvent routine translates these events into MSAA events, and passes them along to`
			`with an nsIAccessible to the original RootAccessible::HandleEvent`
			`which turns that nsIAccessible into a NotifyWinEvent call, complete with a fake child ID.`
			`</p>`
			`<p>`
			`Most MSAA events aren't utilized by accessibility aids. Therefore we implement only the handful that matter.`
			`The most important event is the focus event, followed by name, state and value change events.`
			`</p>`
			`</ul>`
			`</body>`
			`</html>`