Hi Gordon, This is a genuine accessibility issue with Java Preferences. VoiceOver doesn't see tabs other than the one that is currently selected, so they don't show up in item chooser menu, and you can't use it, or any of the other normal ways to navigate to them and select them. I've posted a complete solution for Paula on how to use Mouse Keys to navigate to any of the tabs and select them, because you can move vertically down from the "Java Preferences" heading in the title bar with Mouse Keys and VoiceOver will tell you when you have moved over the "Network" tab if you've set the verbosity to speak items under the mouse cursor by checking that box in the announcements tab under VoiceOver Utility. Then you can start moving horizontally with Mouse Keys either to the left or right to navigate to the other tabs. It's just that it takes a lot of key presses to move this way -- I think about 32 presses of the "k" key to move down to the edge of the tabs, and about 75 key presses to mov e across any tab horizontally. It was only about 10 presses of the "u" key to move left to the "Security" tab if you moved down from the heading, but it would take another 75 or so to move to the edge of the "General" tab in order to click it, which you can do by pressing the "i" key. This will work every time and go directly to the control you want, but typing out the explanation of how to set up Mouse Keys and mapping out the number of key presses takes longer than just moving your cursor with your finger on the Trackpad, guided by the edge, if you only need to get to one of the tabs.
Incidentally, the VoiceOver reporting behavior when I navigate onto the tab group with Mouse Keys also tells me there's an accessibility issue with the setup. I shouldn't hear the tab reported until I'm directly over it, but somehow, as I move down towards the tab area, VoiceOver starts reporting the currently selected tab group, and only identifies the individual tab names, with "radio button" appended, once I am directly over those tabs. It's as though the currently selected tab blots out the tab grouping selection, which is indeed how it appears from the item chooser menu behavior -- only the currently selected tab, whichever one it is, is visible to VoiceOver. If any list members are working as developers with the Mountain Lion gold master, please check the behavior of Java Preferences! HTH. Cheers, Esther On Jul 23, 2012, at 7:53 AM, Gordon Smith wrote: > Hi Paula > > have you tried using the Item Chooser? That sometimes helps to make your > life easier. > > Gordon > > On 22 Jul 2012, at 23:22, Paula Hobley <paula.hob...@bigpond.com> wrote: > > Thanks Lyn > > Yes, I did do this. I'm still having trouble finding things when I use the > track pad though, it's a bit hit and miss. Is this normal? > <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net ---> To reply to this post, please address your message to mac-access@mac-access.net You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Mac-Access forum at either the list's own dedicated web archive: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html> or at the public Mail Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/mac-access@mac-access.net/>. Subscribe to the list's RSS feed from: <http://www.mail-archive.com/mac-access@mac-access.net/maillist.xml> The Mac-Access mailing list is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free! Please remember to update your membership options periodically by visiting the list website at: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/mac-access/options/>
