Jeez you are so knowledgeable, are you some sort of Apple consultant? You are very thorough, I am so impressed. On 27 Jun 2010, at 22:20, Esther wrote:
> Hi Mike, > > The problem of VoiceOver's not being able to navigate to, or detect, a > third-party icon that is place on the status menu bar is an accessibility > issue that's come up before. The issue is, the standard way that Apple gives > third-party developers to insert status menu icons via “NSStatusItem” does > not expose those icons to VoiceOver. Apple's own proprietary coding, using > “menuExtra”, does allow such icons to be exposed. For some programs, not > having access to the status bar menu icon is not an issue. For other > programs, you can open the Contents bundle and check whether there are hooks > to AppleScript the functions. I described how to do that in a reply to one > user who wanted to run a program that kept his laptop from going to sleep. > This tack was also used by another VO user who had to install a VPN client > that supported Open VPN used at his University. For some apps, like Dropbox > and JustNotes (which I no longer use now that Notational Velocity support for > Simplenot is available), you can use window chooser menu in Finder (VO-F2 > twice) and select "-untitled-" to navigate to the status menu icon on the > menu bar. (Don't ask me what's going on there, but when using both Dropbox > and JustNotes you had two instances of "-untitiled-" appearing.) Rogue > Amoeba used to install a haxie for their Sound Source freebie (a quick way to > switch audio input and output sources from the menu bar and to control their > volume), but finally gave up doing this for the transition to Snow Leopard. > As a consequence, Rogue Amoeba's Sound Source freebie was accessible from the > status menu bar in Leopard, but is no longer so in Snow Leopard. You can > read more about this, including the detailed comments about the problem in > the link to the Rogue Amoeba blog, in my archived post on "Accessible Status > Menu Bar Icons and VoiceOver": > http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries%40googlegroups.com/msg09249.html > > I'll also link a more recent post called "VPN revisited" from the person who > had to use the AppleScript work-around to get his VPN client working, since > that refers to his consultations with the author of one of the software > packages, and statements about the awareness on the part of developers that > this situation with the "NSStatusItem" argument that they are supposed to use > causes problems: > http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries%40googlegroups.com/msg10735.html > > HTH. Cheers, > > Esther > > On Jun 27, 2010, Mike Arrigo wrote: > >> Hi everyone. Has anyone seen programs that, when they run, place an icon in >> the status menu, I'm assuming this is the area on the top right of the >> desktop? I've tried 2 different programs, one to control the minimum fan >> speed, and a java application, both of these claim that they place >> themselves in the status menu area, yet, using the mac keyboard command, >> control f8, or using the voiceover menu command does not allow me to access >> the status menus of these programs. Do they use nonstandard menus, and is >> there any way to access these? > > _______________________________________________ > > To reply to this post, please address your message to > [email protected] > > You can find an archive of all messages posted since 12 April 2010 to the > Mac-Access forum at: > http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html > > The Mac-Access mailing list is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and > worm-free! > > Please remember to update your membership options periodically by visiting > the list website at: > http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/mac-access/options/ -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
