WinApi: How to add alternative text to owner-drawn button for screen readers?

Question

I've created an application (C++, pure Win32, no ATL/MFC) which has a window with two buttons.

These are owner-drawn buttons, children of the window itself, and I create them using CreateWindowEx with a BS_OWNERDRAW style.

I'm doing accessibility testing at the moment and the text on my buttons is not being picked up by the screen reader. Are there special steps that need to be taken for button text to be picked out by a screen reader?

Answer 1

As Scott mentioned, try setting the button's standard window text, even if you are drawing it manually. Otherwise, you will have to make your control implement the IAccessible interface, and respond to the WM_GETOBJECT window message, so it can provide such details, like custom text, to screen readers and automation tools.