The message is unclear.  The subject line refers to menus but the first part of the message talks about the start menu.  I strongly suspect that that is what is being referred to, not that menus are not read in Firefox and in Chrome.  If, in fact, menus aren’t being read in Chrome and Firefox, then Ron may be right about the accdcessibility settings, but I find it very unlikely that both browsers would have this setting be incorrect in the default installation and the user would be extremely unlikely to have changed them.  Therefore, without more information, I shall assume that the menus work in both browsers and that the start menu is the menu referred to in the subject line. Also, the description is that Firefox and Chrome are unreadable.  Nothing is said about menus.
Gene
----- Original Message -----
*From:* Sarah k Alawami <mailto:marrie12@gmail.com>
*Sent:* Wednesday, March 18, 2020 10:36 AM
*To:* nvda@nvda.groups.io <mailto:nvda@nvda.groups.io>
*Subject:* Re: [nvda] Serious issue with NVDA not reading menus and totally silent in Firefox and Chrome

Try a complete reinstall of NVDA. This might help. All nvda related folders will need to be removed. Also if she has any add ons try uninstalling those then on the full reinstall of nvda reinstall the add ons one at a time to see if they still have the issue.

Sarah Alawami, owner of TFFP. . For more info go to our website. <http://www.tffppodcast.com>;

to subscribe to the feed click here <http://feeds.feedburner.com/tffp>; and you can also follow us on twitter <http://twitter.com/tffppodcast>;

Our discord <http://discord.tffppodcast.com>; is where you will know when we go live on [twitch.](http://twitch.tv/ke7zum] Feel free to give the channel a follow and see what is up there.

For stream archives, products you can buy and more visit my main lbry page <http://lbry.tv/@ke7zum>; and my tffp lbry page <http://lbry.tv/@tffppodcast>; YOu will also be able to buy some of my products and eBooks there.

Finally, to become a patron and help support the podcast go here <Http://patreon.com/tffppodcast>

On 18 Mar 2020, at 3:53, Mallard wrote:

Hello all,

A friend of mine recently bought a HP laptop.

She experiences some really weird behaviours with NVDA.

When the Start key is pressed, no menu is read.

But that can be bypassed by using the Start button on the bar.

The main issue is that both Firefox and Chrome aer unreadable, and
I-ve never seen anything like that in my life.

I tried to help her via Teamviewer, as she lives in a different
town, and I was shocked.

How is it possible that NVDA doesn-t read browsers like that_

I-m not a techie at all, so have no idea of what to do and how to
help her.

she-s a teacher and, with the Covid/19 lockdown active here in
Italy, she needs to teach online. Not easy under these conditions.

any help will be greatly appreciated.

Ciao,

Ollie

The message is unclear.  The subject line refers to menus but the first part of the message talks about the start menu.  I strongly suspect that that is what is being referred to, not that menus are not read in Firefox and in Chrome.  If, in fact, menus aren’t being read in Chrome and Firefox, then Ron may be right about the accdcessibility settings, but I find it very unlikely that both browsers would have this setting be incorrect in the default installation and the user would be extremely unlikely to have changed them.  Therefore, without more information, I shall assume that the menus work in both browsers and that the start menu is the menu referred to in the subject line. Also, the description is that Firefox and Chrome are unreadable.  Nothing is said about menus.
Gene
----- Original Message -----
*From:* Sarah k Alawami <mailto:marrie12@gmail.com>
*Sent:* Wednesday, March 18, 2020 10:36 AM
*To:* nvda@nvda.groups.io <mailto:nvda@nvda.groups.io>
*Subject:* Re: [nvda] Serious issue with NVDA not reading menus and totally silent in Firefox and Chrome

Try a complete reinstall of NVDA. This might help. All nvda related folders will need to be removed. Also if she has any add ons try uninstalling those then on the full reinstall of nvda reinstall the add ons one at a time to see if they still have the issue.

Sarah Alawami, owner of TFFP. . For more info go to our website. <http://www.tffppodcast.com>;

to subscribe to the feed click here <http://feeds.feedburner.com/tffp>; and you can also follow us on twitter <http://twitter.com/tffppodcast>;

Our discord <http://discord.tffppodcast.com>; is where you will know when we go live on [twitch.](http://twitch.tv/ke7zum] Feel free to give the channel a follow and see what is up there.

For stream archives, products you can buy and more visit my main lbry page <http://lbry.tv/@ke7zum>; and my tffp lbry page <http://lbry.tv/@tffppodcast>; YOu will also be able to buy some of my products and eBooks there.

Finally, to become a patron and help support the podcast go here <Http://patreon.com/tffppodcast>

On 18 Mar 2020, at 3:53, Mallard wrote:

Hello all,

A friend of mine recently bought a HP laptop.

She experiences some really weird behaviours with NVDA.

When the Start key is pressed, no menu is read.

But that can be bypassed by using the Start button on the bar.

The main issue is that both Firefox and Chrome aer unreadable, and
I-ve never seen anything like that in my life.

I tried to help her via Teamviewer, as she lives in a different
town, and I was shocked.

How is it possible that NVDA doesn-t read browsers like that_

I-m not a techie at all, so have no idea of what to do and how to
help her.

she-s a teacher and, with the Covid/19 lockdown active here in
Italy, she needs to teach online. Not easy under these conditions.

any help will be greatly appreciated.

Ciao,

Ollie

Ultimately, if it's the issue I think it is, it's NV Access' responsibility to fix it once and for all. However, since they don't seem to be doing anything about it...


My guess is this is an instance of #9039. To avoid a lot of back and forth, let's assume it is; if it's not, no harm done.

1. Run the COM Registration Fixing Tool, follow its prompts, and reboot just for good measure. If it fixed it, then great, nothing to worry about and you can stop here.

However if that didn't fix it (which I doubt it would), please do the following, assuming you have an installed copy of NVDA 2019.3 or higher:
1. Press windows+r to open the run dialog.
2. Type nvda
3. Press control shift enter and answer yes to the prompt that appears to run as administrator.
4. When NVDA restarts, open the python console either with NVDA+CTRL+z or in the tools menu.
5. Paste this long line in and hit enter. If you're using teamviewer, I'm not sure how you get the clipboard across; maybe it does it automatically.

import comtypes,ctypes;p=comtypes.typeinfo.LoadTypeLibEx(r"c:\windows\syswow64\oleacc.dll");ctypes.windll.oleaut32.RegisterTypeLib(p,r"c:\windows\syswow64\oleacc.dll", None)

If it says traceback, then the line didn't work, and it may have been pasted incorrectly. In that case, come back here and we'll figure out why.

6. Restart NVDA. Things should work again. If they don't, try rebooting.

On 3/18/2020 3:53 AM, Mallard wrote:

Hello all,


A friend of mine recently bought a HP laptop.


She experiences some really weird behaviours with NVDA.


When the Start key is pressed, no menu is read.

But that can be bypassed by using the Start button on the bar.


The main issue is that both Firefox and Chrome aer unreadable, and I-ve never seen anything like that in my life.


I tried to help her via Teamviewer, as she lives in a different town, and I was shocked.


How is it possible that NVDA doesn-t read browsers like that_


I-m not a techie at all, so have no idea of what to do and how to help her.


she-s a teacher and, with the Covid/19 lockdown active here in Italy, she needs to teach online. Not easy under these conditions.


any help will be greatly appreciated.


Ciao,

Ollie

From: nvda@nvda.groups.io <nvda@nvda.groups.io> On Behalf Of Brian Vogel
Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2020 9:59 AM
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io
Subject: Re: [nvda] Serious issue with NVDA not reading menus and totally silent in Firefox and Chrome

On Wed, Mar 18, 2020 at 12:31 PM, Gene wrote:

The message is unclear.

Perhaps a bit, but when I see, "When the Start key is pressed, no menu is read. But that can be bypassed by using the Start button on the bar," followed by, "The main issue is that both Firefox and Chrome are unreadable," I have no reason to believe that both statements are not accurate.  I have no idea why you'd believe otherwise.

Something's definitely off, but I suspect it is, like most issues, idiosyncratic to that machine.   This behavior is so uncharacteristic I'd be starting with:  Using SFC (System File Checker) and DISM (Deployment Imaging Servicing and Management) to Repair Windows 8 & 10


 
--

Brian - Windows 10 Pro, 64-Bit, Version 1909, Build 18363  

Power is being told you're not loved and not being destroyed by it.

       ~ Madonna

I had the same problem after installing Dropbox. In Word, a window with the
title “Dropbox” was coming. After pressing the Alt key, and press ESC.

Probably a program you installed on your computer has installed the plug-in
for MSWord.

*Sean*

* Twitter: Friedrich Sargon ( https://twitter.com/FriedrichSargon )
* Email: seantolstoyevski@protonmail.com ( seantolstoyevski@protonmail.com
)
* GitHub: SeanTolstoyevski ( https://github.com/SeanTolstoyevski/ )

I'm student and programmer. I write often Python, sometimes Go and rare
C++.
I can understand Turkish and English.

Hello all,

A friend of mine recently bought a HP laptop.

She experiences some really weird behaviours with NVDA.

When the Start key is pressed, no menu is read.

But that can be bypassed by using the Start button on the bar.

The main issue is that both Firefox and Chrome aer unreadable, and I-ve never seen anything like that in my life.

I tried to help her via Teamviewer, as she lives in a different town, and I was shocked.

How is it possible that NVDA doesn-t read browsers like that_

I-m not a techie at all, so have no idea of what to do and how to help her.

she-s a teacher and, with the Covid/19 lockdown active here in Italy, she needs to teach online. Not easy under these conditions.

any help will be greatly appreciated.

Ciao,

Ollie

Hi Mallard,

For both Firefox and Chrome, there is a checkbox under settings that says: "prevent accessibility services from accessing your browser." This should be unchecked. I thought it would be unchecked by default, but apparently, your friend's system had this item checked by default.  This would in effect render Firefox and Chrome inaccessible and useless to screen readers.

The easiest way to undo this damage is to have sighted help.  It's a simple matter of clicking tools, options, and unchecking this checkbox.

Lacking that, I believe there is something you can type at the command prompt from the edit box for search/addresses. You would have to do this all in the blind, so it wouldn't be easy.  I will look for the proper things to  type in the blind, but as of now, I seem to have misplaced the information.
Maybe someone else on list will have that information.


On 3/18/2020 6:53 AM, Mallard wrote:

Hello all,


A friend of mine recently bought a HP laptop.


She experiences some really weird behaviours with NVDA.


When the Start key is pressed, no menu is read.

But that can be bypassed by using the Start button on the bar.


The main issue is that both Firefox and Chrome aer unreadable, and I-ve never seen anything like that in my life.


I tried to help her via Teamviewer, as she lives in a different town, and I was shocked.


How is it possible that NVDA doesn-t read browsers like that_


I-m not a techie at all, so have no idea of what to do and how to help her.


she-s a teacher and, with the Covid/19 lockdown active here in Italy, she needs to teach online. Not easy under these conditions.


any help will be greatly appreciated.


Ciao,

Ollie

From: nvda@nvda.groups.io <nvda@nvda.groups.io> On Behalf Of Robert Kingett
Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2020 6:26 AM
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io
Subject: [nvda] Q Read alternative

I wanted to share an open source Q Read alternative called Bookworm. It does not have bookshare support yet, nor does it support links, and headings, or tables, but still. It's a free option. The main website is below, where you can also read the manual.

I'm adding this to the accessible apps github page when I have a moment.

https://mush42.github.io/bookworm/

Hello all,


A friend of mine recently bought a HP laptop.


She experiences some really weird behaviours with NVDA.


When the Start key is pressed, no menu is read.

But that can be bypassed by using the Start button on the bar.


The main issue is that both Firefox and Chrome aer unreadable, and I-ve never seen anything like that in my life.


I tried to help her via Teamviewer, as she lives in a different town, and I was shocked.


How is it possible that NVDA doesn-t read browsers like that_


I-m not a techie at all, so have no idea of what to do and how to help her.


she-s a teacher and, with the Covid/19 lockdown active here in Italy, she needs to teach online. Not easy under these conditions.


any help will be greatly appreciated.


Ciao,

Ollie

That isn’t the starting point, though the add-on should be installed.  These are classic signs that certain dll files are not registered.  Run the dll registration tool in the tools menu..  If you don’t know how to find it, ask.
Gene
----- Original Message -----
*From:* Jacob Kruger <mailto:jacob@blindza.co.za>
*Sent:* Wednesday, March 18, 2020 6:25 AM
*To:* nvda@nvda.groups.io <mailto:nvda@nvda.groups.io>
*Subject:* Re: [nvda] Serious issue with NVDA not reading menus and totally silent in Firefox and Chrome

Ollie, off-hand, does she have the windows  10 app essentials add-on installed - presuming she's using windows 10?

And, wouldn't expect it to behave that badly, but, that would be my starting point.


Jacob Kruger
Blind Biker
Skype: BlindZA
"...resistance is futile...but, acceptance is versatile..."
On 2020-03-18 12:53 PM, Mallard wrote:

Hello all,


A friend of mine recently bought a HP laptop.


She experiences some really weird behaviours with NVDA.


When the Start key is pressed, no menu is read.

But that can be bypassed by using the Start button on the bar.


The main issue is that both Firefox and Chrome aer unreadable, and I-ve never seen anything like that in my life.


I tried to help her via Teamviewer, as she lives in a different town, and I was shocked.


How is it possible that NVDA doesn-t read browsers like that_


I-m not a techie at all, so have no idea of what to do and how to help her.


she-s a teacher and, with the Covid/19 lockdown active here in Italy, she needs to teach online. Not easy under these conditions.


any help will be greatly appreciated.


Ciao,

Ollie

Ultimately, if it's the issue I think it is, it's NV Access' responsibility to fix it once and for all. However, since they don't seem to be doing anything about it...


My guess is this is an instance of #9039. To avoid a lot of back and forth, let's assume it is; if it's not, no harm done.

1. Run the COM Registration Fixing Tool, follow its prompts, and reboot just for good measure. If it fixed it, then great, nothing to worry about and you can stop here.

However if that didn't fix it (which I doubt it would), please do the following, assuming you have an installed copy of NVDA 2019.3 or higher:
1. Press windows+r to open the run dialog.
2. Type nvda
3. Press control shift enter and answer yes to the prompt that appears to run as administrator.
4. When NVDA restarts, open the python console either with NVDA+CTRL+z or in the tools menu.
5. Paste this long line in and hit enter. If you're using teamviewer, I'm not sure how you get the clipboard across; maybe it does it automatically.

import comtypes,ctypes;p=comtypes.typeinfo.LoadTypeLibEx(r"c:\windows\syswow64\oleacc.dll");ctypes.windll.oleaut32.RegisterTypeLib(p,r"c:\windows\syswow64\oleacc.dll", None)

If it says traceback, then the line didn't work, and it may have been pasted incorrectly. In that case, come back here and we'll figure out why.

6. Restart NVDA. Things should work again. If they don't, try rebooting.

On 3/18/2020 3:53 AM, Mallard wrote:

Hello all,


A friend of mine recently bought a HP laptop.


She experiences some really weird behaviours with NVDA.


When the Start key is pressed, no menu is read.

But that can be bypassed by using the Start button on the bar.


The main issue is that both Firefox and Chrome aer unreadable, and I-ve never seen anything like that in my life.


I tried to help her via Teamviewer, as she lives in a different town, and I was shocked.


How is it possible that NVDA doesn-t read browsers like that_


I-m not a techie at all, so have no idea of what to do and how to help her.


she-s a teacher and, with the Covid/19 lockdown active here in Italy, she needs to teach online. Not easy under these conditions.


any help will be greatly appreciated.


Ciao,

Ollie

Hello all,


A friend of mine recently bought a HP laptop.


She experiences some really weird behaviours with NVDA.


When the Start key is pressed, no menu is read.

But that can be bypassed by using the Start button on the bar.


The main issue is that both Firefox and Chrome aer unreadable, and I-ve never seen anything like that in my life.


I tried to help her via Teamviewer, as she lives in a different town, and I was shocked.


How is it possible that NVDA doesn-t read browsers like that_


I-m not a techie at all, so have no idea of what to do and how to help her.


she-s a teacher and, with the Covid/19 lockdown active here in Italy, she needs to teach online. Not easy under these conditions.


any help will be greatly appreciated.


Ciao,

Ollie