Michael Hanscom4h ago

#lazyweb idea: I want to be able to use NVDA style keyboard commands to navigate webpages even when NVDA isn't running. I'm not a regular screen reader user, but do so often enough that I've gotten used to at least the basic commands, and am finding myself wishing I could tap H to jump among headings, or bring up a heading or link list window, or various other navigational options. Would be handy both as personal quick navigation and as a quick (not remotely comprehensive) initial accessibility check.

I'd assume this would need to be a browser extension. I could see it having an option as to which screen reader commands you want to use, depending on whether you're more familiar with NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver, or one of the others.

I'm primarily a macOS/Safari user, so that's the top of my wishlist of supported browsers, but I know that more extensions are made for the Chrome/Edge/Firefox trio; ideally, this would be available for all browsers.

I don't suppose such a thing already exists? I'm not a programmer, so can't magically make this appear myself. If someone else out there thinks this is an idea worth pursuing, I'll be your first download! :D

#nvda #jaws #accessibility #a11y #macOS

Show threadNV Access3h ago
@djwudi This doesn't really help if you're using iOS mostly - but NVDA itself has a "speech mode" setting. You can set the speech mode to "off" or "on-demand" so it doesn't speak (on-demand WILL speak if you issue an NVDA reading command like NVDA+down arrow for say all)
Show threadMichael Hanscom
@NVAccess Oh definitely! When I first started figuring out NVDA, finding the “shut up” button was a priority. ;) There have been times I’ve used it for this sort of thing, but 1) I’m primarily a macOS user, and 2) it seems a bit overkill to keep NVDA running silently in the background just so I can have a few extra handy key commands.
12:42amWeb
Show threadNV Access44m ago
@djwudi That's all understandable, and indeed, NVDA likely is overkill for that, though we do try to keep it lightweight in any case. Do let us know if you do find a utility to do what you need - we do get queries from people who want .... screen-reader adjacant functionality like this and it's great to have resources to recommend for those needs.