A free, open source, modern Windows accessibility API inspection tool inspired by the original aViewer.
Back in 2012 while working at TPG, I teamed up with a bloke Jun to develop an accessibility API object inspection tool. When I say teamed up I mean, I suggested features and he implemented. The original aViewer was written by Jun in Delphi, Google sponsored the open sourcing of the code, but it has lain fallow pretty much as Delphi is one of the ancients.
My dream has been to update the aViewer, but due to it being in Delphi, I had to take a different route and inspired by the original I created with ChtaGPT’s help a version built on dotnet.
Why do I dream of aViewer?
The original allowed me to view the accessibility API information exposed in any UI displayed on the desktop (not just web UI) think inspect.exe. At the time the browsers did not display the accessibility tree, but even once they did, the API properties that are exposed for the various accessibility APIs are not always fully exposed or are exposed with browser drived role names. I was motivated again to try to get the aViewer working as my friend and colleague Joe Lamyman was trying to debug some gnarly data tables. The thing is that in the browser accessibility tree the headers/cell relationships are not exposed, so one could conclude that there are no relationships present. aViewer moderno solves this by exposing the relevant UIA and iA2 table properties.
The Train to Disaster
Lyrics
The world careers like a speeding train That never will return again Its destination is coming fast Its frantic journey is it's last Each man woman girl and boy Returns this journey to enjoy You know the end is near And you're laughing out of fear The world is on it's way Every passenger will pay If he stays on the train to disaster The world is the train to disaster You feel the flames of the burning train Destruction, fire and searing pain But you decide your fate You can jump before it's too late The world is on it's way Every passenger will pay If he stays on the train to disaster The world is the train to disaster