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Screen Reader accessibility

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Dhoundiyal
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Screen Reader accessibility

I'm one of the users of Portable Apps who rely on screen reader programs to read/navigate the screen content because of my visual-impairment. I use NVDA, an open source (available from www.nvda-project.org), and JAWS, a commercially sold (available from www.freedomscientific.com), screen reader apps. The PortableApps menu/interface cannot be read by these screen readers (i.e. they are inaccessible). It is my hope that the developers of PortableApps would design the next release of PortableApps' interface such that it is accessible to screen reader apps and would render as smooth interaction as is for the sighted users. Thanks in advance.

John T. Haller
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Working On It

We're working on this in connection with 2.0. We're upgrading to Delphi 2010, the latest version of our development environment, to better support it. Basic keyboard support should be built in to 2.0 (as well as the entries actually being screen-reader accessible) and we're going to be building in even better accessibility tweaks post-2.0 with each minor update. 2.0 includes a built-in updater, so we can release updates more often rather than saving them up for big point releases.

The next beta of 2.0 may not have the first taste of it, but the one after will. We *really* need folks familiar with screen readers to help test it, so keep an eye on our homepage (or RSS feed) for the announcements of the betas and help us make it as accessible as possible. Thanks!

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

csabi260
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How can i help?

Hi John,

How can i help You to test the PortableApps.com menu with screen reader?

I like PortableApps.com and i would like to use the built-in menu with ym screen reader.

Now i testing PA.c Platform 2.0 Beta 5 but nothing changed since the last versions.
I right-click a PortableApps.com icon on a system tray i can read only the following: Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos, explore, eject, exit.

Sincerely, Csabi

John T. Haller
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Left-Click

When you left-click, does your software pick up any of the right-hand stuff (Documents, Music, Options, etc)? Our goal is to get that working and I put in a partial fix for it in Beta 5, I believe.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

csabi260
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Left-Click does not work

Hi!

Left-click does not work for me. Sad
Excuse me, one of my last post i wrote it wrong that "i right-click a PortableApps.com icon on a system tray" - i just hit enter.

When i can try to "left-click"?
When i start my PortableApps.com menu i see the following:
graphic 985 graphic 985 graphic 412
But the numbers are always not the same and i can read only the first 4-5 graphic element and after my speaking software start to read another part of the screen, for example program icons on the desktop, etc.

When i left-click to a first graphic element a file dialog box appear to change my personal picture.

There is a librari in Delphi make programs accessible for blind users: The Visual Component Library

Sincerely, Csabi

csabi260
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some tips to make Accessible menu under Delphi

Hi!

I just asked on a blind programmer's mailing list about that how to make accessible menu under Delphi

The answers was the following:

Answer 1:
I've been a Delphi developer since version 1 back in the 90's.  The Author simply needs to use TMainMenu for a menubar accorss the top and TPopupMenu for
any context menus.  Jaws will work very well once he uses these.

My suggestion to him is to have an .ini configuration setting that he checks in his main form's FormShow event.  If the flag is set then he hides one of
the menus and shows the other.

If he needss any further assistance have him email me directly.

Mike
EMail:
miketerry-lists@cox.net

Answer 2:

If the developer uses Delphi wrappers for a native Win32 menu system, it will be accessible.  probably a different menu system is being used based on custom
controls that do not implement the Microsoft Active Accessibility API (MSAA).

Answer 3:

Perhaps the following 2 links could help the developer.

http://www.stevetrefethen.com/blog/UsingtheMSAAIAccessibleinterfacewithi...

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/bb735024.aspx

Sincerely, Csabi

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