[nfbcs] Accessibility and Office 2016 for Windows

[Susan Stanzel]

Curtis,

In the meeting I was in with Microsoft they really advocated going to the
Office 365 because fixes would come out regularly. At this point I have not
done it.

Susie Stanzel

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Curtis Chong via
nfbcs
Sent: Saturday, October 03, 2015 11:58 AM
To: nfbcs at nfbnet.org
Cc: Curtis Chong
Subject: [nfbcs] Accessibility and Office 2016 for Windows

Greetings:
 
You may know that Microsoft Office 2016 for Windows is now available. While
blind users of  Apple products have generally indicated that Office 2016 as
a step forward in terms of accessibility (for example, you now can actually
read the text of your Word document with VoiceOver), there is some question
as to whether Office 2016 for Windows represents a step forward or a step
backward for users of nonvisual access technology.
 
I have been using Office 2016 for Windows (particularly, Word and Outlook)
for about a week now. As with any new release, there are some bugs. I have
encountered at least one new problem with Office 2016 involving attachments
in Outlook, and the problems I knew about that did exist with Office 2013
regarding the inability to read the text in Outlook signatures and the
Envelopes dialog in Word do not seem to have been fixed--at least for users
of JAWS for Windows.
 
At this year's convention of the National Federation of the Blind held in
Orlando, Florida, we were told that we could expect a positive experience
with Office 2016. This is why I am sending out this email. I need to hear
from people who are using the Windows version of Office 2016 with screen
access technology. Have you experienced any accessibility issues? What has
worked for you and what hasn't worked? In your opinion, does Office 2016 for
Windows represent a step forward or backward in terms of your ability to use
the product?
 
Microsoft Office can now be leased for as little as $7 a month. If you
establish a Microsoft Live account and then go to www.office365.com, you can
acquire a personal or home license for Office and install the full product
on your computer. For approximately $70 per year, you can use the software
on one machine, and for about $100 a year, Office can be installed on up to
five of your computers.
 
If you plan to set up a new Live account, be warned that Microsoft is still
using the dreaded visual CAPTCHA, and although there is an audio CAPTCHA
link, it sometimes doesn't work. I had to contact Microsoft's Disability
Answer Desk (1-800-936-5900) for help with this issue--something which I
thought was not acceptable but for which my request for help was quite
reasonable.
 
If anyone wishes to contribute to this discussion, I would appreciate as
much detail as you can offer, and it would be most helpful if you would
communicate with me privately via email. Send your comments to me at
curtischong at earthlink.net. If you decide that you want to try Office 2016,
you now have a chance to do this without spending hundreds of dollars, which
is all to the good.
 
Thank you most kindly for your attention to this message, and much
appreciation for anything you can contribute here.
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Curtis Chong, President
National Federation of the Blind in Computer Science
 
 
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Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2014.0.4830 / Virus Database: 4365/10749 - Release Date: 10/03/15