Hi,
Although this change can be refined, it is becoming highly unlikely that
this will be reverted fully. Part of this has to do with Microsoft's
thinking regarding it, as whatever they do impacts NVDA in the end. Also,
this decision was not strictly mine - we had folks report the behavior
you've described as not satisfactory for them, and after careful thinking, I
decided that it is better to honor NVDA settings than let the app dictate
things fully, which includes silencing controls when NVDA is told to not
announce typed characters, especially when concerning expressions (this is
why NVDA does not announce notifications from newer apps unless you are
actually using them). More broadly, I consider Narrator (not JAWS) as a base
standard in Windows 10 (including in Calculator app), but I do keep NVDA
settings in mind when I write support for modern apps and try my best to
design user experience around NVDA settings and usage scenarios (one example
is supporting selective UIA event registration properly in parts of Windows
10 App Essentials add-on, specifically when interacting with emoji panel and
clipboard history). In regards to the scenario you have described, to
restore the old behavior, I advise turning on "speak typed characters"
through an app-specific configuration profile for Calculator app, which will
then let you hear typed characters (numbers and symbols) as you enter
expressions (note that Windows 10 App Essentials doesn't know about speak
typed characters setting, which enforces the notion that the add-on should
not make changes to NvDA settings).
As a general rule: you can say that Windows 10 App Essentials will give you
a preview of what NVDA might do with Windows 10 features and apps in the
future. At the moment Windows 10 App Essentials includes at least four
possible (and actual) changes reviewed by NV Access and other contributors,
including announcing the name of the virtual desktop you are switching to,
improved support for more modern emoji panel and clipboard history being
tested by Windows Insiders, improved support for Windows Search edit field
in File Explorer (with mixed results at the moment), and announcing new
locations of Start Menu tiles and Action Center items when rearranged. Of
course I haven't forgotten about Calculator app - in fact, WinTenApps
includes improved support for history and memory list navigation in more
recent Calculator releases, which may or may not become a part of NVDA
(again this depends on Microsoft's thinking).
Cheers,
Joseph