Accessibility (Screen Readers)
SftTree/OCX 8.0 includes built-in Windows UI Automation (UIA) support. Users who rely on Narrator, NVDA, JAWS or any other UIA-compatible assistive technology can read and navigate the control without the hosting application doing any work. There is no opt-in and no code change required.
What the screen reader sees:
| Element | Exposed as |
|---|
| Control type | Data grid. Row / column / cell navigation is available through standard grid shortcuts. A split tree control exposes a single unified data grid (not two nested grids) so the user experiences the same structure regardless of split. |
| Rows | Each item is a row fragment that carries its tree level, expand / collapse state and selection state. The parent / child / hierarchy of the tree is preserved in UIA navigation. |
| Column headers / row headers / footers | Exposed as separate header fragments with the header text spoken as the name. are reflected in the header name. |
| Cells | Each cell is addressable individually. Cells using check-box or radio-button images advertise the matching control type and toggle / selection state, so the screen reader announces "checked" / "unchecked" / "mixed" as appropriate. |
Event notifications are raised automatically: selection changed, caret changed, vertical / horizontal scroll, expand / collapse, column resize, insert / delete item and cell toggle-state changed. The provider loads on demand the first time a UIA client queries the control, so there is no overhead for applications whose users never attach an assistive technology.
Two things the application controls:
- Provide descriptive tooltip text through the control's ToolTip events (for example ToolTipColumnHeader and ToolTipCell) so headers and cells convey useful information.
- Call the Announce method to push short application-status text ("3 rows added", "Filter cleared", "Saved") to attached screen readers. Announce is the right tool for momentary status updates that do not have a visible representation in the tree.
Dark mode and Windows High Contrast are independent accessibility settings. SftTree/OCX honors both automatically. See Dark Mode and High Contrast.
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