Screen reader support

July 27, 2007 · by julienp

We at Opera care about accessibility and usability issues and we have been working hard on improved screen reader compatibility. The accessibility project was started, aiming among other things at enhancing our screen reader support.

At this point, we are able to announce that we have made great progress and the new functionality will be available in the coming weekly of kestrel.

These are the main points that have been accomplished.

On Windows:

Good support for the Microsoft Accessibility API (MSAA).
Close cooperation with other screen reader vendors.

On Mac:

Excellent support of the Mac API for Accessibility.
Excellent support of VoiceOver.

Additionally we met Aaron Leventhal, Mozilla's accessibility guru, this week. In cooperation with Mozilla we'll establish better standards concerning accessibility in Web browsers. It is great to work with people like Aaron - thank you!

And this is only the beginning. We will have more coming on the accessibility side in the coming weeks and months!

Readers' comments

Comments left by My Opera members under the original post: the first 50, as archived.

Tamil27. July 2007, 15:03:04
Almostigriss27. July 2007, 15:04:54
Várni várni, mindig csak várni ... :S
vladann27. July 2007, 15:06:34
mark_poleon27. July 2007, 15:14:05
.5
shikaka27. July 2007, 15:22:06
givf new weekly!! (én is értem)
strat8927. July 2007, 15:22:19

.5
Doliprane27. July 2007, 15:26:16

anyways a post better than nothing I guess lol
Almostigriss27. July 2007, 15:26:31
Hejj, magyarok, szítsunk lázadást! 9.5 ?
Lali, Te viszed a zászlót!
Fyrd27. July 2007, 15:26:35
Excellent news! Not so much for your average weekly-downloader, but I think it's great to hear about Opera's dedication in this area.
sebt27. July 2007, 15:29:45
SoulOfDoinel27. July 2007, 15:32:16
aleksanteri27. July 2007, 15:33:59
bexs27. July 2007, 15:37:51
Jensemann27. July 2007, 15:42:15
Norvég vagyok, de egy kicsit értem!
I hope that was correct!

I'm really waiting for this release... I've been following this blog since day 1. Every day!
Almostigriss27. July 2007, 15:51:29
Jensemann: Well done! Learn more Hungarian

Lalikám: az "időkép" alkalmazást láttam tőled, az meg is vagyon.
Talán van másik is?
Almostigriss27. July 2007, 16:02:12
Lali, a magyar nem is olyan nehéz ... A latin nehezebb
lucaswarrior27. July 2007, 16:08:14

i wait
QuHno27. July 2007, 16:11:01
Good support for the Microsoft Accessibility API (MSAA).
Excellent support of the Mac API for Accessibility.

I want a Mac when the new version comes
ggodlewski27. July 2007, 16:21:23
What about Unix?
skydart27. July 2007, 16:21:35
I've noticed that many posts of late have been using languages native to their own country, but that leaves nearly everybody else of the discussion. With all due respect, can we use English in our posts, (this site is in English). I want to participate in the discussions, but many of us are not able to because we have no idea what you are talking about.
Lali1987101427. July 2007, 16:26:50
sorry
Almostigriss27. July 2007, 16:37:58
Min sajnálkozik a Lali Testvér? :O
Cocaaladioxine27. July 2007, 16:39:34
That's the kind of things that make the difference! Good job!

You're the Best!!

(I'm waiting for the next weekly!!!! Pleeeaase)
Dark-Dx27. July 2007, 16:41:00
I always see so much people asking for .5, c'mon The desktop team makes a GREAT ADVANCE (YES THIS IS A GREAT ADVANCE AND SOMETHING THAT OPERA WAS LACKING OF) and all what you guys do is "We want kestrel nowww arrhh, *whatever*", It looks like you're not supporting their work..

On-topic: That's for the heads up, I already want to test "alex" on leopard/opera
JoRgE-198727. July 2007, 16:45:22

Great work.
Knoni27. July 2007, 16:50:06
Wann kommt endlich kestrel

for skydart
I'm waiting for kestrel
frisby27. July 2007, 17:04:00
Great news. When will we get the release/weekly?
erpel27. July 2007, 17:04:06
You guys rock!
Opera rocks!
Every little bit of improvement on OS X is highly appreciated.
Keep up the great work.

philipp

ps: Just giving another plug to the "save my settings on the my opera account" idea.
andresruiz27. July 2007, 17:09:11
Tks for the news
Cryptobionika27. July 2007, 17:17:50
You keep on describing to us how good the Kestrel will be. We KNOW that it's gonna be very, very good, we can't, can't wait to get it!!! You make such an awesome job on it, thank you so much, it's just we want, want, want it so much already!
MrFukov27. July 2007, 17:36:50

.5
fearphage27. July 2007, 17:40:13
The Great Kestrel wait of '07
Khadgar27. July 2007, 18:05:56
They're just trying to kill us with anxiety. It's a conspiracy.
Hades3227. July 2007, 18:41:11
@Cryptobionika: Of course we know it will be GOOD,
it's OPERA!
GT50027. July 2007, 19:33:48
Originally posted by ggodlewski:
What about Unix?

Agreed. We'd like to finally have some voice support on Linux/Unix as well.
cavalez27. July 2007, 19:38:25
Accessibility:

Will there ever be another laguage for Voice? For example: Spanish (more than 332 mil. speakers) or German (more than 100. milions speakers). English (322 mill.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers
podarok27. July 2007, 19:46:35
9.5...
9.5......
9.5.........
9.5............
we still waiting.......................

8)
IceArdor27. July 2007, 19:58:03
Nice to know that Kestrel is one step closer towards being available.
superenan27. July 2007, 20:14:40
yei
kyleabaker27. July 2007, 20:24:26
Thanks for the info! Great to hear about progress regularly.

Originally posted by fearphage:
The Great Kestrel wait of '07

Indeed, it will be known as "The Great Kestrel wait of '07", lol. Let's hope you're not correct about suggesting that Kestrel might become vaporware, or that this doesn't extend through '08 & '09. I love Opera and really want to see a solid build when it is released, but at some point..you just get tired of waiting.

Off topic, while Kestrel is still under heavy development it appears that Firefox will be stealing yet another feature from Opera. I'd love to see Opera take some back, sad to say this, but as I keep waiting for Kestrel..Minefield is growing on me more and more. I have a thirst for the bloody cutting edge of browser technology, hehe.
Serpher27. July 2007, 20:30:31
Good to know that something is happening. Were all waiting for new weekly build of Kestrel
dONALD Blood27. July 2007, 20:44:35
Miat...? Magyar szöveg!? \o/
Szevasztok
nem et, hanem egy kicsit
igorditerni27. July 2007, 20:47:31
Great news! Waiting for first weekly to test.

Ciao, Igor
wupperbayer27. July 2007, 21:35:07
So, let me just fix one sentence a bit:

“At this point, we are able to announce that we have made great progress and the new functionality will be available in the coming week~~ly of kestrel~~.”
cavalez27. July 2007, 21:59:55
in the coming weekly of ~~kestrel~~.”
Arnt27. July 2007, 22:04:51
It's nice to get some info about progress, so thank you Julien.
ra_mon27. July 2007, 23:05:05
Oui, Merci Julien, pour ces informations parcellaires et pour cette petite
crécerelle mangeuse de lézard que nous attendons aussi en France, voire peut-être même en Belgique, avec impatience
Bon courage !

@+
--
Pierre
fearphage27. July 2007, 23:32:14
Originally posted by kyleabaker:
Firefox will be stealing yet another feature from Opera. I'd love to see Opera take some back
Extension builders can quickly and rather easily emulate and improve upon features from Opera (speed dial for instance). Sadly, we must wait for devs to decide which new, requested, and/or competitor features are worth implementing in Opera. In the current configuration, Opera will eternally be playing 'catch up' in some regards. Opera adds speed dial... a month or so later ff has a much more customizable speed dial extension. They added in-line spell checking, firebug, and more many moons ago. We are still waiting. C'est la vie.

EDIT: Would it be possible to get a list of 20-50 common feature request and somehow identify (by a staff member) the status of these requests? Like:
considering
working on it (maybe a targeted milestone)
never happening (and why?)

Is that too much to ask? I guess this sort of defies the 'BTS of ultimate secrecy' but it sounds do-able, no?
cavalez28. July 2007, 00:23:44
I wanted to see Speed Dial in Firefox. It looks terrible and buggy, is not comparable with Opera's Speed Dial.

Developers, don't be afraid about the thief-company leeded by Michell Baker

Without extensions is Fx just nothing and with them it uses 90 -100% of CPU often

Who would like to make a new profile once a month?

screenshot from Fx:
http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/723/speeddialfd4.jpg

The sites are reloaded by resizing of the window.
Kuja IX28. July 2007, 00:33:17
@ ra_mon : youpi je ne suis pas le seul français a suivre de près l'évolution d'Opera ^^

Good job Opera team for next week