Mozilla + Window-Eyes Compatibility Page

Instructions for testers

We've made a lot of progress with Mozilla/Window-Eyes compatibility. There is at least one particular large document which works better in Mozilla than with IE, where it hangs with Window-Eyes loaded.

Here's how you can test:
  1. Download a copy of Mozilla 1.8a3 (this is not Firefox). Read the release notes if you're interested. These builds are pretty stable considering they're only alpha, I'm having very good luck with them. It doesn't do us any good to get bug reports on older stuff right now. The installer will ask you if you'd like to install mailnews or the address book -- we're aware that  mailnews is completely inaccessible, so you only need to install the browser unless you're curious about the other apps.
  2. Install Window-Eyes 4.51 SP 3 from GW Micro (or, IBM employees can download the internal IBM Window-Eyes SP 3 developer edition)
  3. Download and install the additional patches supplied by GW Micro. Unzip these into your Window-Eyes directory.
  4. Happy testing! You may wish to read through the current issues on this page before reporting bugs. Ignore mailnews and address book. Send me email so that I'm aware that you're testing and let me know what bugs you're finding. My email address is aaronleventhal@moonset.net.

Issues for GW Micro, from high to low priority

  1. Goes into MSAA mode in editor
    * Window-Eyes will need to watch for STATE_READONLY or this state change event and turn off MSAA mode if necessary.
    * Also test with in page rich text editing iframes (Midas): http://www.mozilla.org/editor/midasdemo/
  2. In MSAA mode, hit Enter on a named anchor link within the same page, Window-Eyes focus/position in MSAA buffer not updated
  3. List boxes in View -> Character encoding -> customize not being read as they get focused, but when you alt+tab away and back the listboxes echo as you tab to them. The missing field name on the list is a separate problem.
  4. Cannot navigate lists or list items by typing S, Shift+S, I, Shift+I, etc. even though these are now exposed
  5. Insert+E for elements.
    * Window-Eyes will need to use ISimpleDOMNode to get the appropriate info

Recently fixed by GW Micro

  1. Lists (such as this one) getting skipped by Window-Eyes.
    * Window-Eyes will need to walk into these ROLE_LIST objects when they are marked STATE_READONLY
  2. When users presses Ctrl+PageUp/Ctrl+PageDown to switch tabs. No "loading page ... load done"
    * Window-Eyes doesn't load new page into MSAA buffer even though there's a focus on the new window.
  3. Window-Eyes needs to investigate the following issues related to focus and reading incorrect states
    - Radio buttons and checkboxes always saying unchecked
    - Treeviews such as the one in file bookmark reading "expanded treeview blah” instead of “treeview blah expanded”
  4. Tree items don't get their positions spoken (exposed via formatted string "L#, # of #" in accDescription)

Issues for IBM/Mozilla

  1. Headings, quotes, blockquotes not exposed
  2. bug 93149: Plugins can't be tabbed out of, long term plugin API solution being worked on (note that Flash doesn't support MSAA in the Netscape plugin)
    Related: bug 245349:  (fix via bug 83754?): empty "Click here to get plugin" not accessible via keyboard or API's.
  3. bug 89148: The sidebar is undoubtedly in need of work. The sidebar can be toggled open/closed with the F9 key. The current tab can be changed with Alt+PageUp/Pagedown.
  4. DHTML. IBM wants make it possible to make DHTML widgets accessible. More info on this later.
  5. bug 68841 (difficult) - mnemonics in labels for xul radio buttons and checkboxes not underlined
  6. bug 251998 (difficult) - focus outlines nearly impossible to see. Would be good if we could draw outline around a dom range too, for accessibility purposes.
  7. Firefox has a lot of issues. Use the Seamonkey browser instead

Issues IBM is not addressing

  1. Thunderbird, etc.: IBM is currently soley interested in "Seamonkey" a.k.a. Mozilla's original application suite. IBM may change over to Firefox at a later date.
  2. Extensions: there are a lot of useful extensions out there, and we we will take a look at making them accessible only if they will benefit accessibility. Come to think of it, perhaps the Adblock would benefit screen reader users? Adblock filters out all kinds of ads from the main content, not just popups.
  3. Mailnews, composer and address book: IBM is only currently using only Seamonkey's browser. The editor is important, but only in what's called "design mode" (an editable iframe inside a page).  Please test with the design mode demo.

Recently fixed in Mozilla

  1. bug 245931  [fixed in 6/16/2004 build]: Focus problems: (Aaron needs to make sure focused items always have FOCUSED state even when focus event is fired):
    1. The contents of the edit boxes don’t always read. For example type “Doug” for the “First Name” entry and press TAB. Now type “Geoffray” and press shift-tab to get back to First Name. It doesn’t read anything - (not the field name or data). TAB down, it doesn’t read anything again. Now shift-tab again and now “Doug” reads correctly along with the field name. Tab down and it again reads fine. Superfluous focus events.
    2. Pressing Ctrl+L to highlight address bar confuses WE, while Alt+D doesn't. Happens because no STATE_FOCUSED for focus event's target IAccessible.
    3. In Prefs:Navigator hit Alt+A for location text box, nothing focused because no STATE_FOCUSED for focus event
    4. Focused dialogs need STATE_FOCUSED
    5. Tree items need STATE_FOCUSED
    6. shift+tab out of tree view in file as bookmark, no focus event fired for textbox
  2. bug 127118 [fixed in 6/15/2004 build]: Using mnemonics (alt+letter) with XUL radio buttons messes up focus [checked in]
  3. bug 241064 [fixed in 6/10/2004 build] : State_unavailable is wrong for outer docs and xul tab boxes
  4. bug 245819 [fixed in 6/10/2004 build] : Fix regression from bug 244624 where accessibility info can't be retrieved from 2 subsequent pages with a textfield
  5. bug 245883 [fixed in 6/10/2004 build]: Lists, list items, bullet text not readonly
  6. bug 239914 [fixed in 6/10/2004 build] : When high contrast theme is used, automatically ignore author's colors
  7. bug 245878 [fixed in 6/10/2004 build]: Null plugin ("click here to get plugin") gets stuck in an infinite loop when accessibility info retrieved for it
  8. bug 201922 [fixed in 6/16/2004 build] cCche tree items so they're not continually created, basically leaking
  9. bug 248017 [fixed in 6/23/2004 build] MakeISimpleDOM* interfaces work on Windows XP via IServiceProvider::QueryService(). We ignore the refguid argument.
  10. bug 246062 [fixed in 6/24/2004 build] No accessible name for tree views or list boxes
  11. bug 246063 [fixed in 6/24/2004 build] Expose state change events when tree item expanded/collapsed
  12. bug 248378 [fixed in 6/26/2004 build] Regression sometime after 6/15 -- accessible tree no longer exposed
  13. bug 243313 [fixed in 6/26/2004 build] CSS :before and :after text not exposed. Backed out in 6/25 build because I think it caused bug 248378 (above).
  14. bug 241469 [fixed in 7/2/2004 build] Keyboard issues in Help
  15. bug 64157 [fixed in 7/4/2004 build] Be able to select option in XUL combobox even when it's not dropped down
  16. bug 17602 [fixed in 7/5/2004 build]  HTML radio buttons should be accessible via arrow keys.
  17. bug 245367 [fixed in 7/6/2004 build] Need to expose current tree view position in accdescription
  18. bug 198118 [fixed in 7/6/2004 build]  Not reporting mnemonic via get_acc_KeyboardShortcut for textboxes or anything else where the key is specified on a separate <label> element
  19. bug 175893: [fixed in 7/15/2004 build] Make tab panel labels focusable
  20. No bug number: dialogs that popup not spoken automatically. Example: Ctrl+F find dialog or Javascript warnings.
  21. bug 252955: [fixed in 7/30/2004 build] Almost every state turned on for list items in char encoding -> customize. Wrong list item gets focused state and focus event
  22. bug 255881: [fixed in 8/18/2004 build] Regression: cannot tab into frames or iframes