[NFBCS] GoogleDocs accessibility

[John Gardner]

Thanks to Rynhardt and Curtis for telling me about Braille mode. I have had time for only a very cursory look, but already it is way better than default mode. I wonder what user group is served by default mode. Certainly not Jaws and NVDA users. Anybody know?

John


-----Original Message-----
From: NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Curtis Chong via NFBCS
Sent: Sunday, March 26, 2023 4:06 PM
To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Curtis Chong <chong.curtis at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [NFBCS] GoogleDocs accessibility

Hello:

I am not able to respond at length to John’s questions regarding Google Docs at this point on my iPhone. I will say, that in using Google Docs, one has to turn on both accessibility and braille modes, then turn off the JAWS virtual cursor to achieve best results. Vispero has put on a couple of webinars on using Google Docs with JAWS. Despite this worthy effort, however, it is fair to say that Google’s architecture forces nonvisual users to use strategies that are a significant departure from the traditional screen reader training available today. There are lots of things that need to be learned simply to use the Google Workspace products. In the worsd case, one can simply download the Google Docs file as a Word document if all you want to do is to glean the information you need from it.

Trainers who teach this stuff to the blind are forced to expand their teaching topics to cover all of this. Unfortunately, if they don’t, our ability to compete in today’s workforce will be severely diminished.

Kind wishes,

Curtis Chong

On Mar 27, 2023, at 3:53 AM, John Gardner via NFBCS <nfbcs at nfbnet.org> wrote:

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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