Initially developed by IBM under the codename Project Missouri,[1] IAccessible2 has been placed under the aegis of the Free Standards Group, now part of the Linux Foundation.
While UI Automation is trumpeted as "royalty-free",[3] IAccessible2 claims to be an "open standard".
"[5] It is also advantageous for Microsoft's commercial competitors, Sun and IBM, to promote an alternative accessibility interface to the Windows platform standard, which explains both their focus on developing non-MSAA/UIA interfaces and their promotion of cross-platform support despite the lack of any AT that is cross-platform that might use it.
[6] Increasing the accessibility of dynamic web applications, for example by exposing custom controls for use with assistive technology and by filtering streams of new information by type and importance, became a second major focus for the project.
[8][9] It is in development for Apache OpenOffice,[10] Mozilla Application Suite,[11] NonVisual Desktop Access[12] and the Opera web browser.