[jawsscripts] Re: JAWS and FocusVisible effects
- From: Scott Huey <shuey@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "jawsscripts@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <jawsscripts@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2012 20:49:17 +0000
The upside is that it's a .NET 2.0/3.0 application (I too know the pain of
trying to get JAWS to do anything with a WPF app) and at least as far as my
environment goes JAWS is a given. Downside, the developer definitely is not
interested in recoding with accessibility in mind at this time. We've already
been down that road on other pieces of their software suite (a proprietary
software phone which, ironically, was WPF based), and I think they're just too
small an operation to want to spend on R&D for what they consider a small
subset of their market.
As far as API support already in the program, I haven't yet identified any MSAA
or UIA events that shifting the visible highlighting throws. MSAA, in fact, is
probably going to be an avenue I need to avoid with this application, since
it's constantly inundated with refreshes and updates from the program (it
basically flash updates every data display element in the UI once a second). I
suppose I could always figure out how to modify the restriction boundary
functions to handle the scrolling and use the invisible cursor to simulate real
table navigation.
-----Original Message-----
From: jawsscripts-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:jawsscripts-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Soronel Haetir
Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2012 4:36 PM
To: jawsscripts@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [jawsscripts] Re: JAWS and FocusVisible effects
Unfortunately the simple answer is that if the program does not implement the
accessibility API this sort of thing is an incredible paint. Even worse is
that the older .net winforms gave a great deal of support for these events
natively but the newer WPF makes each program do much of the work itself.
Honestly, depending on the program it might be more productive to contact the
application developer and explain the issue. Adding such support to the
program code is usually far easier than writing scripts for this sort of focus
tracking. And if the program developer does it then it does not matter what
screen reader the user has, unlike with a script solution which is tied to a
particular product.
On 7/26/12, Scott Huey <shuey@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> This is my first time posting to the List, so please bear with me.
> Short version of my question, in case anyone technically minded has a snap
> answer:
> Does JAWS 13 have any method for tracking the FocusVisible effect in a
> .NET program?
> The long, explanatory version:
>
> I'm working on scripting an application here at my place of employment
> which includes several "table" objects which JAWS is unable to
> recognize as a table. Arrow key navigation in this table only sort of
> half works: up and down cause the entire row to be read, left and
> right as far as JAWS is concerned do nothing. But that's not the whole
> story. Delving into the UI using both the MS Inspect SDK tool and JAWS
> own Utility Mode has revealed that the individual cells and rows of the table
> cannot take keyboard focus.
> The keyboard focus proper latches onto the top level object (the pane
> containing the table data) and stays there. When I visually inspect of
> the table, though, I can recognize both a highlight effect on the
> whole row (which explains JAWS recognizing change and speaking on
> pressing the up and down arrows), and a dotted line visual around the
> text inside the individual cells of the table, which moves freely with
> arrow key navigation. I must importantly note that the app lication
> itself scrolls the table up, down, left and right based on this dotted
> line "focus", so the application is definitelytracking the movement
> that JAWS cannot see.
>
> I've done some digging on the internet and determined that this effect
> is officially known as the "FocusVisible" in accessibility terms. JAWS
> obviously doesn't natively recognize it, but I'm hoping someone out
> there might have a sense of how I might script JAWS into tracking the
> effect. I'm hoping to not have to use the Invisible cursor for this
> particular application, since this effect is also used to scroll the
> tables and it won't work to tether the cursors since true Keyboard
> focus never moves from the center of the table.
>
> __________
>
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>
--
Soronel Haetir
soronel.haetir@xxxxxxxxx
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