[NFBCS] GoogleDocs accessibility

[John Gardner]

Hello again all. This note is mostly a complaint about Google Docs for not being more accessible. And a request for help with a couple of issues. If any of my complaints are wrong-headed I'm happy to be set straight. I'll send this on to Google after hearing feedback from this list.

My gripes start with the observation that Google Docs has a (imho unnecessarily large) learning curve, so that blind people who are not expert techies have a hard time of it. Google has admittedly put a lot of effort into promoting accessibility but I do not find Google Docs very usable. You cannot even start with a Google Doc unless you know that the screen reader has to be in forms mode. And I really object to being required to change my screen reader hot keys to avoid conflict with Google Docs hot keys. It should be the other way around. I also find it confusing that feedback during editing is so different from what NVDA and Jaws say in other apps. It is really hard, for me anyhow, to collaborate because I find it so hard to edit anything.

I have other little gripes but I don't want to rant. I do have two specific questions that I hope somebody can answer.
* Is there any way to "read from cursor to end" in Google Docs with either NVDA or Jaws? Not having this feature makes it really painful to read large documents.
* Can you (if so how) alter any of the editing spoken feedback?

Thanks all. 

John Gardner
President
541.754.4002 x 200
www.viewplus.com


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