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> forced to rely on poor tools (I hate JAWS so very very much) Blind Windows users aren't forced to use JAWS, at least in the sort of context where they're li

> forced to rely on poor tools (I hate JAWS so very very much) Blind Windows users aren't forced to use JAWS, at least in the sort of context where they're likely to encounter emoji (i.e. I understand it may be forced in some job settings). NVDA is freely available and Narrator is built in, and both handle emoji well AFAIK. Disclosure: I work at Microsoft on the Narrator team, but I'm just as happy if you use NVDA.

shakna 7y ago
> NVDA is freely available and Narrator is built in, and both handle emoji well AFAIK. They may handle emoji, but they also regularly fail to handle other common screen-reader situations well. I do understand the difficulty - most interfaces today are visually-oriented, and often don't include the necessary contexts for accessibility. This turns our screenreader programs into massive and complex programs that have to handle so many different formats and edge cases they become truly monolithic. But I haven't found either of those to be up to a level of quality where I can put up with them on a daily basis. JAWS is simply the least-worst at the moment. (Small examples: NVDA is similar to the sloths from Zootopia's DMV anytime you're doing anything on a network (whether not its the active window). Narrator's settings regularly get reset by updates, and will re-enable itself at random and unexpected times).
- mwcampbell 7y ago
  > NVDA is similar to the sloths from Zootopia's DMV anytime you're doing anything on a network Do I understand this reference correctly? Are you saying NVDA is really slow when you're doing anything on a network, even when that network activity is in the background? Can you give an example? I've never experienced this nor heard of it. But maybe I'm missing some specific detail of the Zootopia reference. I watched that movie once, or rather listened to it without audio description (with my family), and I don't remember the DMV scene that well. > Narrator's settings regularly get reset by updates, and will re-enable itself at random and unexpected times). Have you reported this through Feedback Hub? I haven't experienced or heard of the problem with settings being reset by updates.
  - shakna 7y ago
    Yes, NVDA has some problems to do with network connectivity. It's a fairly well-known problem. It has been solved several times, and re-appeared several times, but getting the right trifecta of Windows version, network card and NVDA version means it can take somewhere in the range of a full minute just to say "Firefox". --- Windows isn't my daily driver, mostly because Windows 10 has at several points reset _all_ the system settings with some updates, not just accessibility. Again, this isn't an unknown problem. It may happen less often now the team seems more aware of it, but it only has to happen once to render my computer nearly useless. It's less of a problem with Narrator, and more the tightly couple nature of Windows components and the decided drop in update quality in recent years. The part about Narrator randomly speaking is something has appeared since the XP days. Now and then a single word will squeak through when the whole thing is supposed to be on mute. It's completely unpredictable though, so I wouldn't expect it (as a programmer) to be solved at any point soon.

shakna 7y ago

> NVDA is freely available and Narrator is built in, and both handle emoji well AFAIK. They may handle emoji, but they also regularly fail to handle other common screen-reader situations well. I do understand the difficulty - most interfaces today are visually-oriented, and often don't include the necessary contexts for accessibility. This turns our screenreader programs into massive and complex programs that have to handle so many different formats and edge cases they become truly monolithic. But I haven't found either of those to be up to a level of quality where I can put up with them on a daily basis. JAWS is simply the least-worst at the moment. (Small examples: NVDA is similar to the sloths from Zootopia's DMV anytime you're doing anything on a network (whether not its the active window). Narrator's settings regularly get reset by updates, and will re-enable itself at random and unexpected times).

mwcampbell 7y ago
> NVDA is similar to the sloths from Zootopia's DMV anytime you're doing anything on a network Do I understand this reference correctly? Are you saying NVDA is really slow when you're doing anything on a network, even when that network activity is in the background? Can you give an example? I've never experienced this nor heard of it. But maybe I'm missing some specific detail of the Zootopia reference. I watched that movie once, or rather listened to it without audio description (with my family), and I don't remember the DMV scene that well. > Narrator's settings regularly get reset by updates, and will re-enable itself at random and unexpected times). Have you reported this through Feedback Hub? I haven't experienced or heard of the problem with settings being reset by updates.
- shakna 7y ago
  Yes, NVDA has some problems to do with network connectivity. It's a fairly well-known problem. It has been solved several times, and re-appeared several times, but getting the right trifecta of Windows version, network card and NVDA version means it can take somewhere in the range of a full minute just to say "Firefox". --- Windows isn't my daily driver, mostly because Windows 10 has at several points reset _all_ the system settings with some updates, not just accessibility. Again, this isn't an unknown problem. It may happen less often now the team seems more aware of it, but it only has to happen once to render my computer nearly useless. It's less of a problem with Narrator, and more the tightly couple nature of Windows components and the decided drop in update quality in recent years. The part about Narrator randomly speaking is something has appeared since the XP days. Now and then a single word will squeak through when the whole thing is supposed to be on mute. It's completely unpredictable though, so I wouldn't expect it (as a programmer) to be solved at any point soon.