I don't know what motivated the change. As for complaining, even though I don't like it, complaining is probably good here because that way the Skype management can get a feel for how many people their decisions affect. Also my time on Skype has been reduced from what it once was because I've been doing other things, notably SSB work. :)
Bugs can be filed on https://developer.skype.com/jira/ by anyone willing to take the time to do it. You have to set up an account, but then you just file bug reports when you find problems. Sometimes those bug reports cause Skype to come to me with questions btw. Finally, I should reiterate that the UI change in the contact, conversation, and history lists is not an accessibility issue per se, except where it keeps us from getting in and out of the Live Conversations area. Skype does provide meaningful MSAA for all the items in that window. My point is that they are nowadays conscious of many of our needs, but they are still prone, as are many developers, to doing things that unexpectedly break things we're used to. The danger of my scripting so many extra features for Skype is that it is far easier for a Skype change to break something among those features, like Ctrl+Shift+O, even if Skype doesn't actually violate any accessibility standards when making the change. So with all that said, here are some of the real accessibility issues in Skype 4.2 that Skype needs to fix: 1. No way to move in and out of the live conversations part of the conversations area. New in 4.2. 2. Arrows are slow in large contact and history lists. New in 4.2. 3. No MSAA on many systray alert message windows. New in 4.2 betas and present in the 4.2 release. 4. AccHelp on conversation list entries is not cleared when it goes out of date. You can tell this because JAWS 11, at least, will say "Insert+F1 Help" after conversation list entries that no longer contain unread lines. On Tue, Mar 02, 2010 at 11:00:26AM +0100, Jean Philippe wrote: Dear Doug, Skype was proud to clame that they were concerned with accessibility problems in their past release notes. It seems like their sudden interface change means that someone else complained about something else that we are not aware of. Or is it just for aesthetic reasons? I know that you're in contact with the team, but can we help more by complaining, and who should we complain to? Cheers, JPR http://www.facebook.com/jprykiel http://myspace.com/jeanphilipperykiel ----- Original Message ----- From: David Allen To: screen access software with skype Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 2010 6:31 AM Subject: Re: [Skypeenglish] Skype 4.2 scripting report Keep wishing. A wish is all that can be. No doubt a considerable majority of people might agree, but only after everything works again. ----- Original Message ----- From: "rob" <[email protected]> To: "screen access software with skype" <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 2010 5:27 PM Subject: Re: [Skypeenglish] Skype 4.2 scripting report >i wish that skype and other software manufacturers would leave things alone >once in a while. i'm getting sick and tired of having something work in >one version all of a sudden not work in the next. > > rob > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Doug Lee" <[email protected]> > To: "screen access software with skype" <[email protected]> > Sent: Monday, March 01, 2010 10:20 AM > Subject: [Skypeenglish] Skype 4.2 scripting report > > >> I'm still trying to get scripts for 4.2 out, but I'm writing now >> because I made some troublesome discoveries. I still recommend Skype >> 4.1 over Skype 4.2 for all but the adventurous among us. >> >> Here's where things stand: >> >> I can fix Alt+numbers and alt+arrows so they again work in text chats >> (conversations). >> >> At this time, JAWS no longer says "selected" as you scroll past the >> selected entry in contacts or conversations. >> >> I can not fix the sluggishness of the contact list or history if you >> have that problem, but I suggest altering your contact list so it does >> not include contacts who are offline, offline with call forwarding, or >> SkypeOut numbers, to reduce the list size. Without doing that, I have >> about 480 contacts, and it takes nearly a full second per arrow key in >> that list. If I reduce the list as described, it becomes much >> snappier. >> >> I can not fix the problem of moving in and out of the Live >> Conversations list, though I thought I could. This, in my mind, is >> the single most bothersome problem in Skype 4.2. To get in and out of >> that list will require simulating mouse clicks on list items. My >> apologies for this, but I don't see a solution other than to wait for >> Skype to fix the problem by making arrows move seamlessly in and out >> of there. The reason this is hard to fix with a script is somewhat >> complicated, but for anyone out there who understands MSAA, I'll say >> that any approach that seems to work some of the time doesn't work all >> the time because the order of MSAA list items is not constant in that >> window. >> >> We will also have to wait for Skype to fix the problem of Skypewatch >> not reporting sign-ins and sign-outs, because this one is caused by >> missing MSAA on systray popups, as I have mentioned before on this >> list. >> >> Ctrl+Shift+O is no longer feasible and so will not work in 4.2. >> >> JAWSKey+F8 can include extra list items among the buttons it's >> supposed to include. This is fixable but minor enough that I haven't >> gotten to it yet. >> >> My getting scripts out to fix chat windows is also being slowed by my >> ISP shutting down the system I use to update my web site. I still >> hope to get something out soon, but until then, I hope the above >> information is helpful. >> >> -- >> Doug Lee [email protected] http://www.dlee.org >> SSB BART Group [email protected] >> http://www.ssbbartgroup.com >> "The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit >> of it. You have to catch up with it yourself." --Benjamin Franklin >> >> Thanks for posting to the skype english list. To access scripts for the >> latest version of skype go to >> http://www.dlee.org/skype >> To access tutorials and other goodies go to >> http://www.marrie.org/skype/skype.html >> >> >> To contact the list owner send a message to >> mailto:[email protected] >> >> to download a tool to automate the installation of skypewatch go to this >> link. >> http://www.hrvojekatic.tk/ >> >> and for a searchable archives page go here. >> http://bit.ly/64Y48 >> >> thanks and have a wonderful day. >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Skypeenglish mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://emissives.com/mailman/listinfo/skypeenglish_emissives.com > > > Thanks for posting to the skype english list. To access scripts for the > latest version of skype go to > http://www.dlee.org/skype > To access tutorials and other goodies go to > http://www.marrie.org/skype/skype.html > > > To contact the list owner send a message to > mailto:[email protected] > > to download a tool to automate the installation of skypewatch go to this > link. > http://www.hrvojekatic.tk/ > > and for a searchable archives page go here. > http://bit.ly/64Y48 > > thanks and have a wonderful day. > > > _______________________________________________ > Skypeenglish mailing list > [email protected] > http://emissives.com/mailman/listinfo/skypeenglish_emissives.com Thanks for posting to the skype english list. To access scripts for the latest version of skype go to http://www.dlee.org/skype To access tutorials and other goodies go to http://www.marrie.org/skype/skype.html To contact the list owner send a message to mailto:[email protected] to download a tool to automate the installation of skypewatch go to this link. http://www.hrvojekatic.tk/ and for a searchable archives page go here. http://bit.ly/64Y48 thanks and have a wonderful day. _______________________________________________ Skypeenglish mailing list [email protected] http://emissives.com/mailman/listinfo/skypeenglish_emissives.com Thanks for posting to the skype english list. To access scripts for the latest version of skype go to http://www.dlee.org/skype To access tutorials and other goodies go to http://www.marrie.org/skype/skype.html To contact the list owner send a message to mailto:[email protected] to download a tool to automate the installation of skypewatch go to this link. http://www.hrvojekatic.tk/ and for a searchable archives page go here. http://bit.ly/64Y48 thanks and have a wonderful day. _______________________________________________ Skypeenglish mailing list [email protected] http://emissives.com/mailman/listinfo/skypeenglish_emissives.com -- Doug Lee [email protected] http://www.dlee.org SSB BART Group [email protected] http://www.ssbbartgroup.com "Innovation is hard to schedule." -- Dan Fylstra Thanks for posting to the skype english list. To access scripts for the latest version of skype go to http://www.dlee.org/skype To access tutorials and other goodies go to http://www.marrie.org/skype/skype.html To contact the list owner send a message to mailto:[email protected] to download a tool to automate the installation of skypewatch go to this link. http://www.hrvojekatic.tk/ and for a searchable archives page go here. http://bit.ly/64Y48 thanks and have a wonderful day. _______________________________________________ Skypeenglish mailing list [email protected] http://emissives.com/mailman/listinfo/skypeenglish_emissives.com
