Better labeling of Action Wizard Controls for screen reader users
I am encountering problems with poorly labeled controls in the Acrobat DC Action Wizard. As a blind screen reader user, I would greatly appreciate anything you can do to improve the control labels that are spoken by screen readers. I am using the JAWS 2020 screen reader with Acrobat DC version 20.006.20042.
The issues I have encountered:
Some of the button control labels are unclear and it is difficult to determine which control has focus. For example, when adding a Watermark, the button to add the watermark is spoken as “Add”. If I press “space” to select this option, another button appears, spoken as” Add”. I must tab to this second “Add” button and press enter to set watermark options.
I do not see a clear way to determine which control has focus when rearranging the sequence of actions. None of the buttons say “Selected” to let the user know which option is highlighted and will be modified by the “Move Up”, “Move Down”, or “Remove” from sequence buttons.
If using the NVDA or Windows Narrator screen reader, none of the options in the Action Wizard seem to read. These options due seem to be spoken in JAWS.
When trying to run an action, focus is automatically placed on the “Select a File” button. When I attempt to tab from the “Select a File” button to the “Start” Button, to launch my action, Acrobat DC crashes and completely closes. The only work around I have found is to not use keyboard navigation and instead use the mouse emulation options in JAWS to find and activate the start action button.
I don’t know if I have explained these issues clearly enough for you to reproduce. I need to use Acrobat DC in my work and would greatly appreciate if these issues could be resolved. Any assistance you can provide is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Peter
Peter Zaremba
shared this idea
Hi,
I checked the issues after your response.
For point 2, the behaviour is as designed. It seems that the user have to select the option as the default selected item is the last added item in RHP and if no addition is done, then none of the option is selected. Further, I’m not able to hear “AV container View” with controls. I’ve informed the engineering team regarding this.
For point 3, I have raised the issues with engineering team and hopefully it will be fixed in future release.
Thanks
Rachit
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Peter Zaremba
commented
Hi Rachit,
Thanks for looking into these issues. As you requested, I have created videos for point 2 and 3.
Point2 * In the Action Wizard, while creating a new action, or modifying an existing action, JAWS does not announce which choice is selected in the right-hand pane. This makes it difficult to know which action is selected when reordering actions.
* Why does JAWS announce "AV container View" before saying the control's name? This happens on most of the controls.
Demo of problem: https://youtu.be/9F1Zqk4mlw8Point 3 In the Action Wizard, while creating a new action, or modifying an existing action, the NVDA screen reader and the Windows Narrator screen reader cannot read most of the controls. JAWS does a better job of reading these controls, but for some reason NVDA cannot read them.
Demo Video: https://youtu.be/qxe9CFY8JlUPoint 4, the crash, seems to be inconsistent. So, don’t worry about that one for now.
Thanks,
Peter