Output to screen readers in Windows 8 and other .NET apps

Introduction

A long time ago, in a post far, far away, I went into using Microsoft SAPI as a way of reporting information back to a user using the in-built SAPI engine and briefly explained how this could be used to help people with a visual impairment as well as some other uses. If you are interested in focussing on accessibility in your desktop or Windows 8 apps and want another powerful tool in your arsenal, this post will tell you how to communicate directly with people's screen readers (if present).

SAPI: Output speech using the SAPI TTS engine in .NET

Today I'm posting about something which is possibly already covered elsewhere, but I'm covering it as part of a 'theme' that might appear in some of my postings, to do with making things accessible. If any of you immediately went 'ugh' and pulled a face, I hope you're not intending to work in software. Ever. Accessability isn't particularly hard and like real life, making things accessible in software requires a bit of thought and minimal time and in the case of software, probably no cost.