[Trainer-talk] Malwarebytes is Now Accessible ... Mostly

[David Goldfield]

Well, Malwarebytes has certainly added a good deal of accessibility in 
their latest release.  The latest 1.x release, which I believe was 1.75, 
had enough accessibility to make the program usable with screen 
readers.  When 2.0 was released, the program's accessibility completely 
disappeared.  I was pretty miffed at this unwelcome change, as 
Malwarebytes was one of the programs I used on a weekly basis to scan my 
PC for malware.
I registered on the Web site's user forums, where users can ask 
questions to both other users as well as to staff members of the 
company.  I submitted a request that the company add accessibility back 
in version 2.0.  I received a positive reply back from someone in 
development, who assured me that accessibility was going to return 
shortly to Malwarebytes.  It would seem that this latest version is the 
realization of their promise.
Today, I downloaded and installed the latest version.  I tested this on 
a windows 7 Pro 32-bit system in my computer lab at work with NVDA 
2014.3, with one brief test with the latest JAWS 16 beta. While we do 
have a copy of Window-eyes 8.4, I have not yet tested Malwarebytes with 
that screen reader and 99% of my testing was with NVDA.  The 
installation dialogs are the same, standard typical dialogs you 
frequently encounter during most program installs and all of them, as 
they always were, are completely accessible.  Once MB was installed, I 
ran it to see what would happen.
Well, pressing the tab key does indeed read the various options, such as 
options to scan, update signatures, check license, etc. Oddly, NVDA kept 
reading the word "border" before each button, which is harmless but 
somewhat annoying.  My brief test spin with JAWS 16 beta 2 read things a 
bit nicer, omitting the annoying "border" message.
While this is certainly a terrific start, I was a bit confused when 
pressing the button to update signatures seemed to work but produced no 
verbal feedback letting me know what was happening.  I couldn't tell 
whether Malwarebytes was actually updating its signatures or whether my 
command was being ignored.  After doing a lot of screen review with the 
numeric keypad, I eventually discovered that MB had updated signatures 
to the Oct. 14 revision.  This info was really hard to locate, however.  
You really need to know how to use object navigation and how to drill 
down into the correct window to determine this info, which novice NVDA 
users won't have the patience to do.  JAWS didn't seem able to identify 
anything in the window while navigating with the JAWS cursor, although I 
didn't think to use the autographics labeler to see if that might help.
While doing a scan, the progress messages during the scan seem to read 
automatically and MB presents a fairly accessible window with progress 
info, such as letting you know that it's finished scanning startup 
items, registry entries, etc.
OK, here's where things got a bit squirrely, if you'll pardon the 
expression.  At some point, and I don't remember what I did, things got 
locked up and I couldn't navigate within the window.  when I closed the 
program and reopened it, it told me that Malwarebytes wasn't responding 
and there was nothing I could do to get it to start up properly, even 
after restarting my system twice.  The program locking up during a scan 
was apparently too much for it and there was nothing I could do to get 
it to start properly with the normal window of options.  I uninstalled 
it and may revisit it on that same system later on.
In spite of these initial problems, this is a wonderful first step for 
Malwarebytes 2.0.  I think that more of us need to try using it and send 
positive feedback to the development team.  I certainly plan to do 
this.  I hope this information will prove to be helpful for anyone 
interested in giving Malwarebytes a try.

-- 

      David Goldfield,
Assistive Technology specialist
---------

Visit my Web site
http://www.davidgoldfield.info

Feel free to visit my LinkedIn profile
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/david-goldfield/12/929/573

visit my blog
http://davidgoldfield.wordpress.com

Follow me on Twitter
http://www.twitter.com/davidgoldfield