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Great to see browsers adding accessibility in their devtools since a few months! One thing I don't understand here: why is the Accessibility tab not shown by d

by Leimi 8y ago

Great to see browsers adding accessibility in their devtools since a few months! One thing I don't understand here: why is the Accessibility tab not shown by default? Accessibility is something lots of developers don't even know about. I'm sure having the tab visible by default would help greatly in making developers more aware of it.

TuringTest 8y ago
Just guessing here, but if this feature is new, you'd want to show it to people who know what they're doing and look for it actively. This way you can get feedback from experts in the field to refine the interface and features. Once you have a solid viable product, you can show it to the rest of the world and see how well it serves the needs of people less in the know, without frightening them with a half-baked tool.
- r3bl 8y ago
  No, it slows the performance of dev tools and increases the memory usage when turned on. It is addressed in the article, as stated by someone else.
  - Leimi 8y ago
    Having the tab shown and having the accessibility tool working and consuming resource seems to be two different things.
- Leimi 8y ago
  This seems like a good explaination!
kibwen 8y ago
> why is the Accessibility tab not shown by default? The article has this to say: "This is because the accessibility engine runs in the background when the accessibility features are turned on. While it’s running, it slows performance and takes up memory; therefore it interferes with the metrics from other panels such as Memory and Performance as well as overall browser performance. For this reason you should keep it turned off when you aren't specifically using it."
- Leimi 8y ago
  From what I understood, having the engine running (and using resources in the background) is different from having the accessibility tab shown.
  - Crespyl 8y ago
    The contents of the tab come from the accessibility engine though, so running the engine (and using those resources) is a prerequisite for showing the tab.
    - yorwba 8y ago
      The network tab also doesn't show anything until you select it and make some new requests. The accessibility tab is handled the same way, with a short notice about the performance implications of enabling it. So that really isn't a reason to completely hide it.
    - minitech 8y ago
      No, the tab prompts you to turn on accessibility features.

by Leimi 8y ago

TuringTest 8y ago

Just guessing here, but if this feature is new, you'd want to show it to people who know what they're doing and look for it actively. This way you can get feedback from experts in the field to refine the interface and features. Once you have a solid viable product, you can show it to the rest of the world and see how well it serves the needs of people less in the know, without frightening them with a half-baked tool.

r3bl 8y ago
No, it slows the performance of dev tools and increases the memory usage when turned on. It is addressed in the article, as stated by someone else.
- Leimi 8y ago
  Having the tab shown and having the accessibility tool working and consuming resource seems to be two different things.
Leimi 8y ago
This seems like a good explaination!

kibwen 8y ago

> why is the Accessibility tab not shown by default? The article has this to say: "This is because the accessibility engine runs in the background when the accessibility features are turned on. While it’s running, it slows performance and takes up memory; therefore it interferes with the metrics from other panels such as Memory and Performance as well as overall browser performance. For this reason you should keep it turned off when you aren't specifically using it."

Leimi 8y ago
From what I understood, having the engine running (and using resources in the background) is different from having the accessibility tab shown.
- Crespyl 8y ago
  The contents of the tab come from the accessibility engine though, so running the engine (and using those resources) is a prerequisite for showing the tab.
  - yorwba 8y ago
    The network tab also doesn't show anything until you select it and make some new requests. The accessibility tab is handled the same way, with a short notice about the performance implications of enabling it. So that really isn't a reason to completely hide it.
  - minitech 8y ago
    No, the tab prompts you to turn on accessibility features.