[gui-talk] Windows Live accessibility analysis

[Humberto Avila]

Hello to all:
 
I just want to see what your thoughts and ideas are regarding the
accessibility of windows Live in both Windows XP and Windows 7 operating
systems.  
 
I installed Windows Live Messenger in both my desktop computer which runs
windows xp service pack 3, and on my laptop which runs windows 7 home
premium, 64-bit. It seems to me that JAWS is more capable of reading all
areas of the screen and windows under windows Live for windows xp, than it
does on Windows Live for windows 7. for example, in my xp machine, when I
launch the application, I go directly into my contacts area, and I can just
interact with that area, right click to get the menu of options, or just tab
off to read the rest of the window. when I tried this on my laptop computer
with win7, all I get are 2 buttons, "social Highlights" button and "msn"
button. Nothing else. I have tried routing the JAWS cursor and using all the
screen reader's mouse keystrokes, but I get nothing, and whenever I try to
arrow up and down, all I see is, "windows Live Messenger." where is my
contact list, I don't know. JFW does not read where my contacts are, and
even when I press the right click button to get a context menu, I see
nothing, or sometimes I see things like "exit messenger," "sign out," "sign
in," ETC. I have to press Alt+A to get into the actions menu in the menu bar
and then go to the send submenu in order to interact better, like sending
messages ETC. And you know what is strange? I don't see anything like "Send
an instant message" or something similar when I go to that menu. All I see
is something like Send email, Send message to a mobile phone, Call, but not
Instant message. Did Microsoft drop support for Instant messaging in windows
Live for windows 7?
 
I believe the latest version of Windows Live for XP is version 14, and in
windows 7, is version 15.0. 
 
 
I am running JAWS 13.0 on my desktop computer with XP, and I am running JAWS
12.0.1170 on my Windows 7 Laptop. Perhaps this isn't a direct accessibility
issue, but my JAWS version on my laptop? or, did Microsoft made windows live
for windows 7 less accessible? has any of you run into this problem? any
suggestions and work arounds? 
 
thanks,
Humberto