Creating Custom Controls or Enhancing Normal Behavior of Standard Controls

There are times when the standard controls provided by Windows cannot mimic the preferred interface design. In this case, custom controls may be purchased or created from scratch. Care must be taken to ensure that all controls or classes purchased or built from scratch follow the Section 508 guidelines for accessibility conformance.

The problem with creating custom controls is that assistive technology may have difficulty identifying them. Most assistive technology, such as screen readers and voice recognition programs, require specific information (e.g., color, text, etc.) in order to work successfully with screen elements.

Select the Next button to learn about the methods that most assistive technology use to identify screen elements.