From Aaron Leventhal:

"I'm trying to learn about the difference between STATE_VISIBLE and 
STATE_SHOWING.

Up until now I've been reading ATK docs because that's what I'm using as 
an app developer. However if I do that in this case then I don't do the 
right thing for SHOWING and VISIBLE. It's clear only after reading the 
docs that AT developers use that something which is just scrolled off 
should be VISIBLE but not SHOWING.

I know it's busy work, but I suggest it will prevent mistakes if we can 
get the documentation in sync with itself.

ATK says:
ATK_STATE_SHOWING    Indicates this object, the object's parent, the 
object's parent's parent, and so on, are all visible
ATK_STATE_VISIBLE   Indicates this object is visible

AT-SPI says:
STATE_SHOWING   Indicates this object, the object's parent, the object's 
parent's parent, and so on, are all 'shown' to the end-user, i.e. 
subject to "exposure" if blocking or obscuring objects do not interpose 
between this object and the top of the window stack.
STATE_VISIBLE   Indicates this object is visible, e.g. has been 
explicitly marked for exposure to the user.
Note:
    : STATE_VISIBLE is no guarantee that the object is actually 
unobscured on the screen, only that it is 'potentially' visible, barring 
obstruction, being scrolled or clipped out of the field of view, or 
having an ancestor container that has not yet made visible. A widget is 
potentially onscreen if it has both STATE_VISIBLE and STATE_SHOWING. The 
absence of STATE_VISIBLE and STATE_SHOWING is semantically equivalent to 
saying that an object is 'hidden'.
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