Hello Richard,

I used to get the BitLocker dialog after an actual cold start by pressing the power button.

As I remember, you were given three chances to get your BitLocker password correct.  After your third attempt, another dialog appeared asking you to enter a 64-digit recovery password which was given you when BitLocker was originally installed.  Please note that this dialog is also completely inaccessible. 

If that is not successful, you have to purchase a new hard drive.

Hi Louis!

Interesting.  When you say “power on,” does that mean 1) from a restart a.k.a. “soft boot” or 2) an actual cold start by pressing the power button a.k.a. “hard boot” - or both?

Thanks,

Richard

Hello Richard,

I last used bitLocker in 2015.  At that time, bitLocker would ask the sighted for a power on password.  This dialog was completely inaccessible to the blind.  After about 30 seconds, I would enter my bitLocker  power-on password and hope that the dialog box was open.  (Note if the computer was doing updates, then this strategy would fail.) If I entered an incorrect password, the resulting error dialog was also in accessible.  After waiting ten minutes or so, if the computer had not reached the Microsoft account login keyword, I would reboot the machine and try again.  Usually I would find a kind sighted person to help me turn on my computer.  I had to get a sighted person to turn on my computer about 50% of the time.  Microsoft said that they could not make the Bit Locker dialog accessible because Bit Locker runs early in the power-on cycle.

Note, using bitLocker was my employer’s requirement.

BitLocker encrypts your hard drive and is probably a good idea.

I would be interested if there has been any bitLocker progress since 2015.

Hi!

I have a PC running Windows 10 Pro 64-bit and NVDA 2020.4.  Soon, I will turn-on BitLocker.  Will doing so trigger any accessibility issues?

Thanks,

Richard