[nfbcs] Windows Mouse cursor question

[Louis Maher]

Hi Debrah,

I believe the reason why you do not have a review cursor is that Microsoft
is eliminating Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) in favor of the User
Interface Automation.  Screen readers can no longer have an off-screen
model.  They only have what Microsoft gives them about a specific
instruction.  No more screen-scraping to give a picture of the entire
screen.




Regards
Louis Maher
Phone: 713-444-7838
E-mail: ljmaher at swbell.net

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Deborah Armstrong
via nfbcs
Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2016 6:05 PM
To: nfbcs at nfbnet.org
Cc: Deborah Armstrong <armstrongdeborah at fhda.edu>
Subject: [nfbcs] Windows Mouse cursor question

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
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