An architecture is provided that enables an accessibility aid to directly access and manipulate user interface elements of an application program programmatically. Moreover, such access and manipulation occurs in an application-independent manner, so that an accessibility aid utilizing the architecture can access any application program that conforms to the architecture, without the accessibility aid needing any prior knowledge of the application program or its user interface elements. User interface elements typically have both a visual representation displayed on the video display and an implementation, which is the code and data implementing the user interface element. The architecture provides an accessibility aid with direct access to the implementation of user interface elements, thus enabling the accessibility aid to both examine various characteristics of the user interface element and manipulate these characteristics, which may affect its visual representation.