britechguy
Well-Known Member
- Reaction score
- 4,017
- Location
- Staunton, VA
I'm repeating a post here that I also made in the NVDA community on the off chance that someone may have some useful guidance:
-----
I am currently working with a client who is wrapping up a training program that's heavy on MS-Office skills and where the platform noted in the subject line is being used to administer the testing for various certifications. I've truly never seen a less accessible situation. Whatever it's doing makes all the underlying Office programs that get triggered not able to have their data exposed to JAWS (in this case, but it would surely apply to any screen reader) and it also makes doing things like ALT + TABbing between running apps a non-starter.
It is my understanding, and that understanding may be wrong, that this platform is the one that Microsoft has subcontracted to for administering certification testing. Given how seriously Microsoft takes accessibility, if they are subcontracting to the folks who created this platform, someone needs to be made aware of just how awful it is. There is no way any blind student could use it to take the certification tests, even with sighted assistance to move between the test tasks, because the tasks themselves, which would be fully accessible if using "plain old Office/M365" are entirely walled off from screen reader access when the testing platform is running. Nothing from the office suite program for which the student is being evaluated gets exposed to a screen reader other than the name of the document in the window frame. The usual ability to use keyboard shortcuts to operate the program is entirely absent, and the screen reader is generally just silent.
Given what the facility I'm visiting has already told me, this is likely a lost cause if Microsoft is not actually directly involved with the testing platform. But if they are, pressure could be brought to bear from MS, at least possibly, so I'm trying to find out if there is any direct Microsoft involvement and, if so, who is the point of contact. This isn't a "Use Feedback Hub" kind of situation.
-----
I'm trying to determine whether there is any use at all in trying to handle this via Microsoft or not.
-----
I am currently working with a client who is wrapping up a training program that's heavy on MS-Office skills and where the platform noted in the subject line is being used to administer the testing for various certifications. I've truly never seen a less accessible situation. Whatever it's doing makes all the underlying Office programs that get triggered not able to have their data exposed to JAWS (in this case, but it would surely apply to any screen reader) and it also makes doing things like ALT + TABbing between running apps a non-starter.
It is my understanding, and that understanding may be wrong, that this platform is the one that Microsoft has subcontracted to for administering certification testing. Given how seriously Microsoft takes accessibility, if they are subcontracting to the folks who created this platform, someone needs to be made aware of just how awful it is. There is no way any blind student could use it to take the certification tests, even with sighted assistance to move between the test tasks, because the tasks themselves, which would be fully accessible if using "plain old Office/M365" are entirely walled off from screen reader access when the testing platform is running. Nothing from the office suite program for which the student is being evaluated gets exposed to a screen reader other than the name of the document in the window frame. The usual ability to use keyboard shortcuts to operate the program is entirely absent, and the screen reader is generally just silent.
Given what the facility I'm visiting has already told me, this is likely a lost cause if Microsoft is not actually directly involved with the testing platform. But if they are, pressure could be brought to bear from MS, at least possibly, so I'm trying to find out if there is any direct Microsoft involvement and, if so, who is the point of contact. This isn't a "Use Feedback Hub" kind of situation.
-----
I'm trying to determine whether there is any use at all in trying to handle this via Microsoft or not.
