A site called “Chromibility,” is something I am working on, a resource for Chrome Accessibility information and tips. Much of what will be on the site, is featured in a “lengthy” thread I started awhile back, and is “quite packed with content, over at:
http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?id=14805
Tips tricks and app/extension sections, can be reached directly by heading level 5 movement.
The top post of that thread will be filled with related links and resources to Chrome accessibility and mainstream sites, once my Chrome Accessibility site is up, and will also notify folks here in this post or somewhere else, if its more appropriate, once the site’s up for the public. I’m planning
on creating Chromibility Google Plus and Facebook communities also!

It also behooves us to be as descriptive as possible when submitting support tickets of any variety. If the support system does not ask about OS version, software version, etc., we should provide it. We should tell them what steps we’re taking to create the accessibility issue, whether or not we can replicate the problem on other browsers and/or computers, basically anything to eliminate their standard checklist of questions so we can get the help we need as expediently as possible.

Also, we’re agreed on maintaining professionalism.

@ Trenton: Please don’t go feeling an ounce of envy over this Toshiba I got. If it weren’t too late, I’d’ve gone for the 11-inch Dell chromebook. It too has a nice build, and while the display is nowhere near as good, it’s irrelevant for me and its performance much better in terms of tackling a handful of open tabs.

Thanks again for being a fountain of help there with Chromevox. If you’re not preserving the information on a website somewhere, future chromebook users would do well to revisit your comments here!

I myself have an Acer Chromebook 11. Its the “Moonstone White” version. Its also my “first” ever “fanless” laptop.
Wow, you got a Toshiba 2? Been hearing how wonderful those are, with their display and build quality!

The Chromevox keyboard commands, (by default its the “classic” layout,) will feel like you’re using “Emacs” commands, though its not too steep of a learning curve.
If you would like to change the layout to a more “modern” one that most screen readers use,
1. Press “Chromevox-o>o” to open the options screen.
2. Tab till you hear “Change The Current Keyboard.”
3. Arrow down once to select the “Flat Keymap” layout.”
4. Press CTRL-W to close the window.
5. Press Chromevox-Period to bring up a list of all keyboard commands for the selected layout. Escape exits it.

Although I normally use the “classic Keymap,” if I use the “Flat” one, I keep sticky mode turned on, (search key twice quickly,) so I can easily go back and forward through text, (unless I want to examine text a bit more closely.) Although, if you are in a “Chrome App,” its best to turn off sticky mode before hand, (search key twice quickly,) so that normal keys are free for the app itself, if they have shortcuts, or if wanting to type in an editbox. Also, if inside an app, if sticky keys is enabled, you can’t turn it off while inside the app without closing the app first, then reopening it.

Lastly, 3 more resources for ya:

1. Chrome Story, (Chrome OS/Browser news and tips):
http://www.chromestory.com/
2. OMG Chrome, (Same as Chrome Story, though from the “UK” perspective):
http://omgchrome.com/
3. Chromebooks, (Google Plus Community):
https://plus.google.com/communities/105678482604512626671

Enjoy!

I’d not turn this into an FS bash fest. There are a lot of great individuals at the company, and JAWS is still popular for a reason. I apologize if recently it seems if I’ve made FS the target of my wrath, but they do leave themselves open for criticism over examples they could avoid.

@ Alex: Right on the mark. Very well said sir.

@ Trenton: Killer comment as well! I’m not going round publicizing the fact I too am delving into Chromevox on my Toshiba 2, mostly because I’d have to do a little venting about how slow I’m moving through it, but I’m pleasantly surprised, the same way I’ve been surprised about accessibility on my S5, post to come shortly on that experience. And I’m really glad you mentioned Supernova and Cobra. It’s never even remotely occurred to me to give them a try, which I think has a lot more to do with lack of recurring visibility. That, and there are only so many hours in a day to balance all the potential options, but then I guess that was my point. It’s great to have all these tools. I do welcome the possibility of buying a computer that talks out of the box without additional steps to download and run another third party software, but all these avenues keep us sharp and the market competitive.

And thanks for compiling these resources! I’m bookmarking for review.

The comments here are all great. Any interest in guest blog posts? 🙂

I guess you could say I am one of the few… Since December of 2014, I use the “Chromevox” screen reader:
http://chromevox.com/
, on my Chromebook daily, and to be honest, there are more blind people complaining about Google not doing enough in the accessibility department, then actually trying out Chromevox itself via its extention, if using the Chrome Browser, or even if you are on Windows 8.1 using that Chrome OS Metro Mode.
(Link to Chromevox Extension, is on the front page of the Chromevox site)

I “tip my hat” off to the person who is using Narrator “full time” on their Windows 8.1 machine. To be fair everyone, you can “customize” the keystrokes for Narrator under its “Settings,” hearing demos in action doing just that.

Although Supernova from Dolphin:
http://yourdolphin.com/
and Cobra from:
http://baumusa.com/
do not get enough notice in North America, for what they previde may indeed be useful to many blind people. Comparing the “Dolphin Cursor” where you “always” go up and down through mouse controls, vs most other screen readers going in a more “sighted-like” way going across “or” up/down depending on which way ya want to go, at least to me, is a bit easier for “newer” users. I’m not bringing up the OCR topic and which screen reader got it first, that would make this comment longer than it already is!

Finally, below are “two” resourceful lists from Microsoft and Google pages, either on Narrator/MS Accessibility, or on Google Accessibility.
Keep up the great writing Joe!

Microsoft

1 Microsoft Narrator Home:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hear-text-read-aloud-narrator#1TC=windows-8
2. Use Windows 8 Narrator With Office 2013:
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Use-Windows-8-Narrator-with-Office-2013-9b05378f-e282-450a-a6c9-615b64e8cfb2
3. Microsoft Accessibility Online:
http://www.microsoft.com/enable/
4. Office 365 Accessibility Page:
http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/office365/
5. New Accessibility Enhancements For Office Online blog post:
http://blogs.office.com/2015/01/09/new-accessibility-enhancements-office-online/
6. Office Online Accessibility Support Site:
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Office-Online-d6018be1-d9fb-450f-8a13-b5a88e0e329e
7. Windows Phone Accessibility Pages:
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/how-to/wp8/settings-and-personalization/accessibility-on-my-phone

Google

1. Google Accessibility home:
http://www.google.com/accessibility/
2. All Products And Features, (A List Of All Google Accessibility Product Pages):
http://www.google.com/accessibility/all-products-features.html
3. Chromevox Screen Reader:
http://chromevox.com/

However, NVDA does have some backing now, with the help of Nipon (see link below).

I don’t think screen readers are as doomed as you seem to think, because there’s a lot of smart people working at FS, and I can count on NV Access delivering the goods, if perhaps a bit later than FS or GW Micro. If I need to do something NVDA can’t, I’ll grind my teeth ad use something else. Not Narrator. 🙂

A smart company watches what every company in that same market is doing, and rushes to do it better. So we end up with mostly working features and mostly covered areas that were once inaccessible. In other words, it’s better than nothing.

I’m just not willing to deal with all the bugs of the commercial products. What good is a feature if it doesn’t work properly when you truly need it to? When your time and money is riding on a feature sloppily implemented? There’s a lot of segregation and elite foolery in the “blind community”, and JAWS fans will hide their heads in the sand when a bug is pointed out, and the same with the Apple fanboys.

I don’t care about that. I just want to get work done without my activation key being corrupted and having to use up another JAWS license, or grow six more hands to press all the keys required on OSX to do something like click the mouse, etc. I try and use more than one screen reader; you can’t rely on a standalone screen reader to do everything. JAWS might work better in Outlook than NVDA, for example. If you use Outlook, switch to JFW and get that done. It’s a pain, but that’s what you gotta do if you want to get anything done these days.

If anything, Internet activation schemes should take a hike because they lack true stability. I’ve seen plenty of JFW stories where someone’s key got trashed for no logical reason. I’ve also seen mainstream software do the same thing. Again, sloppy coding and money in the coder’s mind, plus time limits almost kick software out the door before it’s truly ready for consumer use.

My theory is that everything is moving so rapidly now, that bits and pieces of software get shoved together like a badly glued puzzle and shipped to end users. Example: Before OSX Lion, it was a two year cycle for Apple to release a new major OSX update. After Lion, we’ve seen annual OSX updates, crammed with cute visual features and some useful ones, even remembering to patch some VoiceOver bugs and introduce new ones with some gimmick feature. My point is we’re going way too fast and driving recklessly with the blinders on. Companies need to either hire proper QA testers, or slow the hell down. They’d probably get more praise if they made a stable, feature-rich solution that actually, you know, worked.

In closing, I don’t think anything is doomed quite yet, though Narrator is probably worse than Thunder. If we want change, we need to stop whining on twitter and arguing amongst ourselves about what is better. We should band together, submit bugs and requests in a calm but assertive manor. When we find a working feature that really helps us, we give positive feedback. Let’s keep it simple. No analysis paralysis needed here. Simple. If it’s broke, bitch to the company. If it’s working, tell them it’s fixed.

Apologies for the grumpy comment, but someone had to just put it out there. Have a great day.
🙂
[1] http://www.nvaccess.org/post/a-more-certain-future-for-free-screen-reader-nvda/

That does bring up the importance of contributing to a free service to keep it free. We would all do well to remember that NVDA has mostly been kept alive through a few donations and a handful of grants. If we want to keep it free, we need to pitch in when we can. NVDA is a heck of a lot better than Narrator.

@ Ben: Given your recommendation, I may have to give Narrator another shot. I will say it was nice to be able to register a brand new computer without sighted assistance. It sounds silly to get excited about setting up my home network, set passwords and the like, but it’s awesome to be able to do it without waiting on someone to come and set it up out of the box. That being said, while Narrator continues to be useful to me in the login screen, it’s not robust enough to carry its weight in a normal workday. I’m not even talking about the illogical key commands, which is something we can all get used to. I’m talking about general access to screen elements that work really well on the free NVDA, but if you’re managing it, clearly I need to give it another look.

I think my fear is the perceived lack of a dedicated accessibility development team. Microsoft’s accessibility line is outstanding, but I don’t know they’re the ones also building on the screen reader.

@ Lynnette: Well said. I know it must seem like I must want my cake and eat it too. Keep the assistive technology options, but please make them more affordable? It just seems ridiculous that a Braille display that costs $400 to build can be sold for thousands. See my personal blog for my piece on OCR programs and the way blind people are being financially manhandled.

Ah, and I do use iDevices but cannot see myself at this stage in my life jumping through hoops to try to learn to use a Mac.

I will, however, dive into learning the latest Windows environment as it has enabled me to be productive in various job positions for over 20 years.

Thanks much for giving me the opportunity to once again state my views on this ongoing important topic.