Hi,
I think that GW Micro really needs to work on web browser page rendering!
Other screen readers are leaving Window-Eyes behind and I hope that GW Micro
puts web issues on the top of their list for fixing in the next release!
Bob Tinney, K8LR, [email protected]
Skype, bobtinn
There's amazing intelligence in the Universe.
You can tell because none of them ever called Earth.
----- Original Message -----
From: Jacob Schmude
To: [email protected]
Sent: Sunday, June 12, 2011 9:03 PM
Subject: A bit of a rant (was Re: Observations with Window Eyes and Web
Browsing)
Hi
** Warning: Begin a sort of rant **
Unfortunately, the Firefox issues have been in Window-Eyes for years.
Essentially, dynamic content causes the entire page to be refreshed. Google's
edit field causes the page to change as you type in order for it to suggest
search results, and this triggers window-eyes' page reload behavior. We have
been promised a fix for this for years and have never gotten it and, while I
don't know about anyone else, I'm losing my patience with window-eyes on the
web with Firefox in particular, but with IE as well. Window-Eyes' support for
Firefox is a joke. Standard elements such as onclicks are not identified (most
other screen readers call these clickables), image links are not identified as
links, reviewing edited text doesn't work, the auto completion and history list
in the address bar do not work properly (they briefly flash in Braille but
never speak), flash within Firefox is not accessible, mouseOvers and other
dynamic content do not update the buffer or when they do you are thrown to the
top, and I could go on. These are things we've been promised fixes for, and
what do we get? New whiz-bang features with old bugs. Internet Explorer 9 is
not much better (GW, did you even test IE9 at all?). Dynamic pages with hidden
elements are not properly rendered (the hidden elements are shown when they
should not be, have a look at Gmail or Google Voice's pages for that one),
There are random headings and lists with 0 items inserted everywhere while real
headings are not identified (blindbargains.com for that last), entering text in
forms somehow fails to allow all typed characters through (I'm a fast typist).
Each and every one of these problems I've listed, the free screen reader NVDA
has overcome (most of these it never exhibited at all). Jaws, that other screen
reader, isn't far behind and Baum's Cobra doesn't have these troubles either.
Quite frankly, given the importance of the internet, this is unacceptable and,
as a Window-Eyes customer for years, I feel more than a little cheated. To GW:
Don't follow FS down the path of release release release but don't fix. I don't
care if it takes two years for a new version, as long as that new version of
Window-Eyes works to the best of your abilities. This is not the best and, if
you're going to brag about your IE9 support, you'd better make blasted sure it
works as advertised. The 7.5 release only had one beta cycle. One. Let's look
at this honestly for a second, no marketing, no pr. What does 7.5 offer over
7.2 that is worth paying $175 for? A new set file format? Not worth that much.
A few new scripting functions? Again, not worth that. Cascading settings (a
nice feature and long overdue, but worth $175?). A rename of scripts to app
(boy, that must've taken a lot of effort there). Meanwhile, long standing bugs
go unfixed, and the web is just one area. I could go on but, these days, I'm
not sure that GW Micro really care. I can't tell off the top of my head exactly
how much I've put into window-eyes over the years since I've owned it, and I'm
now using NVDA instead because it's less buggy and actually allows me to get
real work done. That's just not acceptable QA in my book, and I can't in good
conscience put my hard-earned cash behind a product with this many problems. I
apologize for the harshness, but I've reported many of these within the past
several years and have never seen one fix. Perhaps a little harshness will get
my point across a bit better. I leave that up to you, GW Micro.
** end rant **
I've never seen the IE8 hanging issue but I'm well familiar with the rest of
the problems you're having. You're not alone.
On 6/12/2011 14:58, Cory Martin wrote:
Hello,
Just wanted to report a couple of issues that I've noticed with Window
Eyes with web browsing:
With Internet Explorer version 8:
Firstly there seem to be issues with Google, specifically after doing a
search, for some reason browse mode doesn't come back on. It can be enabled
with the usual command, however it's the only site which doesn't seem to bring
browse mode back on after entering a search string.
More difficult to identify however is a strange issue which seems to
affect Internet Explorer where when the browser is first opened it just hangs,
yet opening a second instance of it may work just fine. I've tried resetting
it in the advanced tab under internet options, as well as using C-Cleaner to
remove extra files, as well as clearing personal data. The issue persists, yet
with other screen readers it doesn't seem to happen. This does not seem to be
a problem with Firefox.
With Mozilla Firefox latest version:
I switched to Firefox full time after having the unsolvable hanging
problem with Internet Explorer. However with Firefox, there seems to be issues
with staying in forms for entering text. For example if I'm trying to enter a
word in to Google it keeps dropping me back in to browse mode every time I
press the space bar. I've had to use notepad to type out my search string and
then paste it in to the browser. I'm not sure which is more annoying.
With either browser:
When trying to arrow arrow around in edit boxes on web pages in both
Internet Explorer or Firefox, Window Eyes just makes a ding sound when trying
to review text entered. It is necessary to drop back in to browse mode to
review what's been entered and then re-enter the edit box and re-position the
cursor to where one wants to correct something based on best guess, or by
cutting the text to notepad and editing it there.
Does anyone have any experience with these problems to either confirm or
deny them? Also and more importantly, does anyone know of work-arounds to
these issues?
Thanks,
Cory
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