WPF Accessibility – Enhanced Contrast Palettes and Validation Support

As you may already know, our most recent release includes two major accessibility-related enhancements for our WPF product line (Enhanced Color Palettes and Validation Support).

Enhanced Contrast Palettes

We have added Enhanced Contrast predefined palettes to aid individuals with visual impairments. These predefined palettes use curated color combinations to better distinguish visual elements such as text, selection states, and borders.

The following themes support our Enhanced Contrast palette:

• Office2016SE
• Office2019
• Visual Studio 2017
• Visual Studio 2019

Our palettes require the Mono.cecil NuGet package. To apply the Enhanced Contrast palette, reference the Mono.cecil package and add the following code:

// Enable predefined palettes. 
Theme.RegisterPredefinedPaletteThemes(); 
// Apply the palette with the base theme of choice. 
ApplicationThemeHelper.ApplicationThemeName = PredefinedThemePalettes.EnhancedContrast.Name + Theme.Office2019White.Name; 

Validation Support

Windows Automation API now receives information about validation errors within editors and grid data cells. Screen readers that utilize the Automation API (such as Narrator) can inform users about validation errors within the focused editor or grid cell. Alerts notify users about validation errors and prompt the user to enter correct values (alerts also notify users as to the number of errors remaining within a form).

To activate validation support, set the DevExpress WPF Data Grid’s (or Data Editors) ValidationService.AllowAccessibilityAlerts attached property to true. You can also activate this property for a container (to send validation alerts for child elements).

VPAT

For more information on accessibility support, feel free to download/review the latest version of our Voluntary Product Accessibility Template: https://www.devexpress.com/products/net/accessibility.xml

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