[nfbcs] Windows Mouse cursor question

[Deborah Armstrong]

I've been using screen readers since the 1980s, and Windows 7 is the first time I've actually struggled with this issue. I realized this list was the perfect place to ask.

It appears that the so-called "mouse cursor" (what JFW calls the JAWS cursor) can no longer freely roam the screen. At first I thought this was indeed just an issue with JFW, but in experimenting with NVDA and with WindowEyes I see the same behavior.

I can run an application in Windows XP and explore the entire screen or active window, depending on whether I restricted the cursor, and pretty much review everything text-based that is there.

But in Windows 7 (and presumably 8 and 10 as well) half the time what I receive by exploring the screen with a mouse cursor is a jumble. And from that jumble text is missing that the screen reader just finished speaking.

This happens on all my machines, in areas where there is no insertion point, or real cursor. I can run the same software and get two different results between XP and 7, even with NVDA's screen review feature.

The most dramatic example of this is in Outlook, where in XP I can examine a message's fields, To, From, date, subject, etc. all using the invisible, JAWS, mouse or review cursor.

Reviewing the same message in the same version of outlook in Windows 7, only parts of those fields appear to the mouse cursor.

In a window with multiple panes I could usually get to a pane that didn't receive focus to read information there. Now it's hit or miss; sometimes I can read the info, sometimes the screen reader voices it automatically but I never locate it when I review, and sometimes it's easy to review.

As an advanced user, I always made extensive use of the review capabilities of my screen reader, and I wish I knew what was going on here and why I apparently can no longer read everything onscreen. I'd really like a technical explanation of what is happening and what work-arounds people are finding?

Thoughts?

--Debee