David,
This is the norm for many programs, especially browsers, when they
undergo major updates. None of them work out of the box with screen
readers. The screen reader developers have always had to do serious work
on their end to make them work. the browser developers only give the
screen reader developers the information on how to do so. And with
Firefox they're in the process of a complete rewrite of the program. So
it will never be accessible with Window-Eyes and only accessible with
JAWS and NVDA when they make it so.
You're right, Jamie Teh, one of NVDA's lead developers went to work for
Mozilla.
And Google Chrome is flaky.
Regards,
Tom
On 11/15/2017 4:28 AM, David via Talk wrote:
A couple of weeks ago, we had the new Firefox breaking the accessibility
under WinEyes. It is well known, from version 56 and up, Firefox will no
longer operate with WinEyes.
Someone kindly pointed us to the business - or ESR - version of firefox,
at the time being version 52. I followed their advice, and installed it,
greatly enjoying to have my Firefox back on stage.
This morning, Firefox notified me there was a security update to my
installation. In other words, no new version, just a maintenence update.
Hence, I agreed to have it perform the update.
Yeah, I take it, you have already guessed what. From now on, my Firefox
says version 52.5, and is no longer doable with WinEyes. It no longer
goes into the programs Main Window, but says Document Window. Here you
can tab around, but the arrow keys produces no real effect, and browse
mode is reported to be:
Not Available.
Oh, how I hate that message. Smiles.
OK, if anyone have seen different behavior, or have got to a bit of
knowledge on how to get Firefox back, we are all ears. To me, it seems
Firefox simply has crept out of all cooperation with our screen reader.
Little do I hold it realistic it will ever come back.
Some place, I seem to recently have read, that someone from the NVDA
team had gone to Mozilla. It then is strange that we are facing this
kind of lack of accessibility. It even states, under Help and About,
that Firefox is meant to make the web accessible to everyone. I guess,
that means except from old-timers with their WinEyes. Smiles and LOL.
For some, Chrome might be an alternative. The rest of us, will be back
to Internet Explorer. Chrome has its benefits, but so far I have had
issues with it under certain operations.
Following NVDA discussions lately, even that screen reader seem to have
high issues with the newest firefox releases. It is being claimed,
things will get better in version 58, but to what extent that will
affect WinEyes, I am doubtful. And a recent note I read from VFO, on
Jaws, seemed to indicate that even Jaws users are experiencing trouble
with Mozilla lately. It was recommended not to use Firefox with Jaws
2018, if I remember correctly. Currently, I am not on that version of
Jaws, so cannot confirm. Anyone here has had a chance to test newest
releases of the screen reader and browser together?
Goodbye to a long-lasting browser, which had numerous and beneficial
advantages over any other products. Along with the somehow old-fashioned
way of operating the web with Jaws - which to a degree reminds me of
where WinEyes was a handful of years ago, the whole Internet browsing
experience now seem to be a setback. Sure is going to take a bit of
time, to get back to normal browsing speed.
Sure, they made it secure? Didn't they. So secure you can't even use it.
That is another kind of safety. Well, seems not even sighted users are
comfortable with the newest moves from Mozilla. Probably why they tell
the next release (58) will have some advancements. Does it remind you of
what happened to things like Windows8, and the fact they had to go back
on certain of the news, when releasing next versions? So maybe we should
not wave totally goodbye to Mozilla all yet. I just wish they would have
a setting somewhere, which would let the browser run the old way, even
if they make some security adjustments behind the scene.
Just wanted to let you know my findings. If anyone have ideas, I for one
will be listening.
For your info, I am under Win7 64bit, and the Firefox is reported as
v52.5ESR 32bit.
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