I've been trying to work with visual studio 2010 RC for the last few days.
Below is what I've found so far. If anyone has got anything to add here,
it'll be really helpful.
I tried VS 2010 RC on Windows XP 32 bit and Windows 7 64 bit.
screen readers: NVDA 2010.1 RC1 and JFW 11.0.756
NVDA:
- NVDA reads most text out of the box.
- NVDA is not able to identify any collapsed regions in the text window and
only speaks the expanded regions.
- NVDA is not able to identify any breakpoints placed on any code lines (am
not sure if I need to turn on some feature in NVDA for it to announce
graphics/icons).
- NVDA does not speak line numbers.
- NVDA is not able to correctly read or navigate watch windows like "autos",
"locals", "watch1" etc. This is very critical for me.
- NVDA is able to correctly read autocomplete and intellisense.
- NVDA does not have mouse control keys but the object navigation seems to
be able to pick up everything. I am still learning how to use this sensibly.
JFW
- jaws is not able to read any text in the code editor window by default.
This seems to be because jaws doesn't understand the foreground and
background colors used (I am using c# environment settings). Trying to
assign a custom highlight color only gives black on black at all times.
- I can remedy this by going into Tools|Options|Fonts and colors in VS and
then setting the foreground and background colors for all the text elements
in this list to blue on white. After doing this, jaws is able to read almost
all the text in the code editor window.
- Jaws still cannot read the braces ({}) in the code for some reason. There
is probably some element that I didn't correctly change the color for -
although I checked several times.
- Jaws cannot identify collapsed regions inside the code editor.
- jaws cannot read any breakpoints (it was able to identify breakpoints in
VS 2008 and earlier).
- Jaws does not read line numbers.
- jaws is able to properly read and navigate the various watch windows like
"autos", "locals", "watch1" etc.
- jaws is able to read autocomplete and intellisense correctly.
- Routing jaws cursor to keyboard seems to behave strangely. The jaws cursor
is placed in the same window but not close to the keyboard focus.
I don't need to use the visual designer to layout controls etc. and haven't
tested that. From the little interaction I had with the designer, neither
jaws nor NVDA could read anything there.
I also need to use the various properties windows more to find out if they
are accessible.
The above is based on default behavior of the screen readers and I haven't
created/used any scripts for this.
If other people have used other screen readers like window eyes with VS 2010
RC and can report on those, it will be really useful.
PS: I also posted this on http://Iaccessible.blogspot.com
Thanks,
Manish
