Patent ID: 7484174

Claim:
A method for facilitating operation of a screen reader, comprising the steps of: analyzing a graphical user interface to identify a logical sequence of user interface elements within the interface; comparing a sequence of user interface elements within a definition of the user interface with the identified logical sequence to identify any required reordering of the elements to conform to the identified logical sequence; and performing the required reordering of the elements to conform to the identified logical sequence; wherein the step of comparing the sequence of user interface elements within the definition of the user interface comprises comparing the sequence of user interface elements within the definition of the user interface with a set of predefined rules for user interface definitions and, responsive to identifying non-conformance with a rule requiring a specific user interface control, the method further comprises the step of: generating an instance of the required user interface control; wherein the set of predefined rules comprises a rule requiring each edit control within a user interface definition to be immediately preceded by a static text control, and wherein, responsive to identifying non-conformance with said rule, generating a new static text control adding the new control to the user interface definition; m response to said identification of non-conformance for an edit control, the method further comprises the following steps: generating a table including an identifier of the edit control, an identifier of the control which precedes the edit control, and a pointer to the new static text control; wherein the step of adding the new static text control to the user interface definition is performed in response to a command or message to initiate display of the user interface.