Including Active Accessibility with your Accessibility Aids for Client Applications

[This is preliminary documentation and subject to change.]

You can get Active Accessibility in two forms. The first is this Active Accessibility Software Development Kit (SDK). The Active Accessibility SDK enables developers to create accessibility aids and accessible applications using the Active Accessibility technology. The SDK includes the core components, new dynamic-link libraries (DLLs), sample source code, libraries, header files, sample applications, and documentation. Additionally, the Active Accessibility Redistribution Kit is available. This kit includes the core components and new DLLs, which you can ship with an accessibility aid or accessible application.

If an independent software vendor (ISV) wants to incorporate Active Accessibility in a product, he or she must redistribute the Redistribution Kit. This self-installing package presents no user interface and ensures that the core components are installed correctly.

Typically, an accessibility aid's installation program will execute the Redistribution Kit software as a final step, and then exit. The Redistribution Kit unpacks the various components, performs version checking, registers the IAccessible interface, and restarts the machine to complete the installation.

Note ISVs are not allowed to set up the Active Accessibility components individually. The license agreement provided with the SDK and Redistribution Kit allows Active Accessibility to be distributed only through the Redistribution Kit.

The following table lists the components that comprise the Redistribution Kit.