I normally use Windows so I hadn’t encountered this issue before. I’ve tested using Chrome and Safari. For whatever reason, I simply cannot access most of the character builder using the screen reader. When I opened up to edit one of my characters, I was able to access the initial screen of the builder where you name the character and set the level. The links to switch to the ancestry, background, class or equipment were not noticable at first. When I used the tab key on my keyboard to cycle through the web page I was able to locate them but not able to activate them using my keyboard. I figured out that my mac’s screen reader thinks they are inside of a table, but I am unable to actually make the screen reader enter that table and access what’s in it using my keyboard.
I was able to use the mouse to click to go to the Class part of the builder, but unfortunately that was even worse as the entire builder was within this table that I can’t interact with. I was able to read through things by pressing the tab key but if I tried to activate anything it did not work. I was occasionally able to do some things with the mouse but it is very difficult to use a mouse with a screen reader. I’ve never seen anything like this. Again, I tried both Chrome and Safari with very similar results.
I’m primarily a PC user, so this won’t cause me too many issues, but many blind people use Macs because they have very good accessibility tools built into them, whereas with a PC you need third party software if you want something reliable. If you’ve got any way to test for accessibility on a Mac I’d appreciate you taking a look at this.
Thank you so much for the report, baelor. I am getting it up to the team so we can take a better look at accessibility on Mac. Much appreciated.
No problem. I wish I could be more helpful with my feedback on this. I’ve honestly never seen anything web-based that was accessible on Windows and not on Mac, especially if it’s accessible in Chrome. The other day I fiddled around with the settings for the VoiceOver screen reader and how it handles things on the screen that are grouped together, like tables. Since it’s showing that a bunch of the character builder stuff is in a table I thought I might be able to get in that way but I couldn’t. But if I had to guess, I think the main problem is that on Windows the character builder is always recognized by a screen reader to be laid out as tables, and there are more tables inside those tables. I think that’s causing the Mac’s VoiceOver screen reader to struggle to navigate it effectively. I’ve seen something similar on other web cites when I accidentally enabled a setting in VoiceOver to show Layout Tables. I don’t have that turned on now though.
SUPER appreciate the additional information. You’re the best.