Accessibility for WPF Document Viewer

• Jul 03, 2025
• 2 minutes to read

Accessibility Features Overview

Accessibility Requirement	Support Level
Keyboard Navigation Support
Screen Reader Support
Contrast Color Theme

- all component features meet the requirement

- component features partially meet the requirement

Accessibility Standards Compliance

WinForms Document Viewer component complies to Section 508 and WCAG 2.x standards criteria. We have not encountered any issues other than the following:

Section 508 criteria	WCAG 2.x criteria	Exception description
	1.3.1 Info and Relationships	In the Document Page area, assistive technology cannot programmatically determine which column header is associated with a specific cell.
	1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence	The reading sequence is determined by the order in which visual elements of the document (bricks) are created when a report is processed. This order may not correspond to the visual order on the page.
	2.1.2 No Keyboard Trap	Document Map panel focus cannot be moved with arrow or tab keys.
	3.1.1 Language of Page	The component does not expose UI language information to assistive technologies. A developer can specify a language in the page that contains the component.

Keyboard Navigation

A user can use the following keys to interact with the Document Viewer:

Key	Action
Tab	Navigates between the Document area, Parameters panel, Document Map panel. Navigates between Ribbon items. Navigates between elements in Parameters and Document Map panels.
Narrator + Left/Right Arrow	Moves between Ribbon command items. Navigates within the contents of a document page when you move focus to a document page. Moves between editors in Document Map and Export panels. Selects an item in drop-down boxes.
Esc	Moves focus to the page that contains bricks when navigating between bricks on a page.
Space	Triggers an action when a command item is selected in the Ribbon.

Screen Reader Support

WinForms Document Viewer supports screen readers and complies to WAI-ARIA standards. The exceptions are listed in the Accessibility Standards Compliance topic section.

Contrast Color Theme

Use the DevExpress Office 2019 High Contrast theme to improve readability. Review the following help topic for information on DevExpress WPF application themes: WPF Application Themes.

Accessibility Mode

Set the IsEnabled property to false to enable accessibility features in a DevExpress WPF application:

C#

public partial class App : Application {
    static App() {
    // ... 
    DevExpress.Xpf.Core.ClearAutomationEventsHelper.IsEnabled = false;
    }
}

VB.NET

Partial Public Class App  
    Inherits Application  
    Public Sub New()  
    DevExpress.Xpf.Core.ClearAutomationEventsHelper.IsEnabled = False  
    End Sub  
End Class
...