User has dexterity issues and cannot use mouse or keyboard so "Touch keyboard" is only way to access computer

Issue 1 – Double tap of pinned icon on task bar, does not open respective app/program when NVDA is on

Issue 2 - Double tapping  inside an edit field does not open "Touch keyboard" when NVDA is on. It worked when NVDA is switched off. (Eg In Notepad it does work but Pycharm it doesn’t work.

Issue 3 - Some programs (not all) when "Touch keyboard" is opened from task bar icon, it opens but does not allow program edit field to have focus. When you double tap within the edit field, nothing happens so you cannot type into edit field. This works correctly when NVDA off.

Issue 4 - Close Key (X in top right corner of "Touch keyboard") does not work when NVDA is on but will work to close the keyboard when NVDA is off

Issue 5 – If you touch the screen and hold finger on the screen and drag, NVDA repeatedly says “Hover” even when you have removed finger.

What version of NVDA is being used on this machine, and what version of windows?  These are things that will be needed before anyone can help here.

Dave

Only part of the question was answered.  We need the version of NVDA, which can be found by going into NVDA, history, then about and you will find the NVDA version number here.

Dave

Thanks, I guess I missed that. 

Dave

Hi,

To answer the original question: Enhanced Touch Gestures add-on did offer an option to disable NVDA's touchscreen support completely. The add-on no longer offers this as it became part of NVDA in a recent release. To disable touchscreen support (as this is what the original poster is looking for), either:

1. If a keyboard is attached, press Control+Alt+NVDA+T to turn off touch interaction.
2. Open NVDA menu, Preferences, Settings, Touch interaction, and uncheck "Enable touch interaction support" checkbox and click (tap) OK.

Touch support toggle credit: Joseph Lee (ask him how that was possible; he says he is willing to go into details on how NVDA's touch support works upon request).

Cheers,

Joseph

We don't want to switch it off, I think there may be a miss-understanding of what we were asking in the original post. We want to use the touch screen (ie using a Windows 11 Laptop in tablet mode where the physical keyboard is folded away and the user has just a tablet like screen. To interface with the computer, you tap an icon to open a "touch keyboard" in the same way you do on a smart phone or IPAD. When NVDA is off everything works well. As soon as NVDA is switched on functions that previously worked don’t any more. I have repeated the problems we had stated in the original post below. Issue 1 – Double tap of pinned icon on task bar, does not open respective app/program when NVDA is on. Issue 2 - Double tapping  inside an edit field does not open "Touch keyboard" when NVDA is on. It worked when NVDA is switched off. (Eg In Notepad it does work but Pycharm it doesn’t work. Issue 3 - Some programs (not all) when "Touch keyboard" is opened from task bar icon, it opens but does not allow program edit field to have focus. When you double tap within the edit field, nothing happens so you cannot type into edit field. This works correctly when NVDA off. Issue 4 - Close Key (X in top right corner of "Touch keyboard") does not work when NVDA is on but will work to close the keyboard when NVDA is off. Issue 5 – If you touch the screen and hold finger on the screen and drag, NVDA repeatedly says “Hover” even when you have removed finger. This is a summary of some of the difficulties we have using NVDA in tablet mode.

Hi,

I see. Allow me to explain what's going on when it comes to NVDA's support for touchscreens:

It is true that when NVDA is on, touchscreens don't work as one would expect. This is not the fault of NVDA- rather, it is the way Windows reconfigures touch gestures when an assistive technology such as a screen reader is active. In Windows 8 and later, Ease of Access (part of Windows) will give priority to NVDA on touchscreen computers when processing touch gestures, similar to the way it works in iOS while VoiceOver is active. This is so that blind users do not activate screen controls by accident while performing touch gestures with a screen reader turned on, as well as to let people explore screen content when swiping with fingers on a touchscreen.

I knew that there are people who would like to perform touch gestures as if NVDA is switched off, so I implemented touchscreen support (interaction) toggle feature in Enhanced Touch Gestures add-on. A while after implementing this feature, I decided that NVDA itself should have this feature, so I asked NV Access to incorporate this feature, and someone added a keyboard command for it as well. Thus Control+Alt+NVDA+T command was born to keep NVDA on while turning off its touch support feature.

As for touch interaction toggle: you won't find this in vision category because it is not a vision setting. Touch interaction toggle setting is shown only on touch capable computers - this has been the standard when Enhanced Touch Gestures carried this feature, and still the same with NVDA having the ability to toggle touch support.

Hope this answers dozens of questions.

Cheers,

Joseph

Hi,

As a follow-up: to activate screen controls while NVDA is on, you must double-tap the icon in question. For example, to activate touch keyboard, double-tap the touch keyboard icon on the taskbar/notification area.

Cheers,

Joseph

Hi,

Yes - this is because keyboards and touchscreens are seen as two different sources of input by NVDA. A better way to explain is how people using braille displays can use braille input and computer keyboards at the same time if they choose since keyboards and braille display hardware are independent input sources.

I am willing to write an entry in Inside Story of NVDA dealing with touchscreens and other input gestures.

Cheers,

Joseph