Interesting reading from an "Accessibility Tester"
Sara Ford is an "Accessibility Tester"--a Software Designer Engineer who is responsible for the quality of the software's accessibility. What does this mean?
When I first started Accessibility testing two years ago, I had never heard of Accessibility in terms of software. Sure, I had seen the Accessibility Options icon in my Control Panel, but that was really the extent of my knowledge at that time. When I was asked to do ad-hoc directed Accessibility testing against Visual Studio , my first question to the Program Manager was, "How do I test for this? How do I test using a screen reader?" He replied, "Turn off your monitor, I guess." And so I did...
Read her tips on testing for accessibility related to Keyboard Access, High Contrast, and Assistive Technology Compatibility - specifically screen readers at http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2004/01/06/48083.aspx