Re: [libreoffice-accessibility] Accessibility Regressions Observed With Writer 7.5.1 and JAWS 2023

Hi David,

On 21/03/2023 03.30, David Goldfield wrote:
> I just upgraded from LO 7.4 to 7.5.1 and I have noticed two accessibility
> regressions with Writer and JAWS which make using Writer a total blocker for
> JAWS users.

I can reproduce both issues (more details below).

> 1.      JAWS no longer reads text when navigating in a document using
> standard navigation commands, such as left arrow, right arrow, down arrow,
> etc. JAWS just announces "edit" or is totally silent. This problem does not
> usually occur using NVDA 2023.1 RC1. However, I have seen this behavior
> occur once or twice. If I restart NVDA and move focus away from and then
> back to Writer once or twice the problem goes away and navigation works as
> expected.

Bibisecting shows that this starts at this LibreOffice commit:
https://git.libreoffice.org/core/commit/235b30bdfa76b5c0514c7dfe2a0d13ab8ecf5be2
("wina11y: Report actual app/toolkit name/version")

Before that commit, LibreOffice was for some unknown reason reporting to 
be an app called "Hannover" with version number "3.0".
Now, it's reporting the actual app name and version, which I think is 
the correct behavior.
(See also the commit message for an example on how to query those values 
from NVDA's Python console. Note that this needs a "from 
IAccessibleHandler import IA2" in addition before running the given 
statements to import the required NVDA Python module.)

My assumption would be that JAWS is still somehow relying on the 
previously reported app name and/or version to detect LibreOffice.
If so, that should be changed/fixed in JAWS in my opinion.
(I'd suggest to either query for the toolkit name, which is "VCL" or 
support not just "LibreOffice" as app name, but also "LibreOfficeDev", 
which is the name that the development version uses, and app names for 
vendor-specific LibreOffice derivatives.)

Can you please report that to JAWS/Freedom Scientific (and keep this 
mailing list up to date on the outcome)?

Please also mention in case any further input from LibreOffice side 
should be needed.

The occasional non-announcement of paragraphs with NVDA (or also Orca on 
Linux) is something that I've also experienced from time to time, but I 
think that's a different issue and was the case in previous LibreOffice 
versions already.


> 2.      When navigating in a pull-down menu JAWS is silent and no longer
> reads the item that has focus. Example: press alt+T for the Tools menu and
> press down arrow to navigate in this menu. JAWS is now silent when moving
> from one item to the next.

This starts at this commit and looks like a regression in LibreOffice:
https://git.libreoffice.org/core/commit/8d8e6c84e512c1a8b33aac75965b84481d1a1d13
("[API CHANGE] Drop css::accessibility::XAccessibleStateSet")

I have created a ticket in Bugzilla to keep track of this:
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=154303

Michael

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