Re: [orca-list] Thoughts on a "list of elements" feature for Orca in Firefox

[Henning Oschwald <listmail hoschwald de>]

Hi,

On Sweetmorn, day 68 of Discord 3174, Marco Zehe wrote:

> I've given the possible list of elements (for example list of links)
> feature some thought and would like to share it with you all to see what
> you think.
>
> First off, let me clarify that I think Orca could really benefit from at
> least a list of links. Others that are offered by other screen readers,
> such as a list of headings, are not so imminently necessary IMO because
> Orca provides access to these already with structural navigation, both
> by any heading and by certain heading levels. However, a list of links
> has no real equivalent in Orca's structural navigation, and I personally
> find the Firefox search not as effective as I find a list of links when
> I'm on Windows.

Personally, I don't miss the link list, I found myself also barely using
it in the past when I was using Windows screenreaders more
frequently. On the other hand, I love the find-as-you-type search in
firefox, especially the link search. That makes web page navigation a
lot easier for me. However, I know that a list of links is requested by
a lot of people, (guessing most of them used to use it with windows
screenreaders frequently), it seems to me that we'll get a list of links
in the one or other way, so I'd like to share my thoughts as well.

> So now for the look of the actual list: I would think it makes sense to
> put this into a kind of dialog box that contains a tree table which
> contains the name of the link (screen name, alt or title, whatever
> Firefox provides) in the first column, and the URL in the second column.

Giving also the URL sounds reasonable to me.

> ENTER should activate an "Activate link" button, close the dialog, focus
> and activate the link, and thereby let the user navigate to the desired
> destination page.
>
> In addition, a second control, possibly labelled "Focus link", should be
> provided, which allows the user to focus, but not activate, the link
> (for example in order to pull up its context menu). We could also think
> of a keystroke like SHIFT+ENTER or something else that would activate
> this button without having the user to tab to it.

There should really be a keystroke for the "go to link" control. But how
about accessing a link's context menu provided by firefox directly from
the links list?

> I am not sure we'd need radio buttons to filter by visited, unvisited,
> or all links, or to sort in alphabetical or tab order, as offered by
> other screen readers.

Filtering isn't needed imho. :-)

> I personally use the links list ron pages I know
> well and know that I want to go to link 150 quickly and activate it.

So what if link 150 becomes link 153 after a page update? Firefox's link
search also gives you the right link in this situation. But that's a
matter of taste, I must admit.

> Any thoughts?

Yes, I'ld vote for providing a links list (if really needed) by a
firefox extension, not as a built-in function in the gecko script, since
in my opinion application-specific scripting in a screenreader should be
pared down to the minimum. Furthermore, I guess that accessing the link
context menu from the links list would be easier to implement than in a
screenreader script.

cheers

  Henning