Zotero 9 and Accessibility

AccessibleTech
Attempting to use Zotero 9 in Word with a blind user using JAWS and NVDA and we're having issues with the Add Citation dialogue box not announcing anything after activation. Can type into the search area and nothing is announced. Can move through the list of suggested citations and nothing is announced.

Any suggestions on workarounds with v9? I see a lot of discussions for v7 and not much for the new versions.
  • abaevbog Zotero Team
    Hello, NVDA works better than JAWS for Zotero in general, so can you tell more about what happens with NVDA running? Are any instructions announced when the dialog opens? You are supposed to hear "Search for items to add to this citation, then press tab to select items to add to this citation". I get this with the latest NVDA on default settings.

    What happens you type something and try to navigate the dialog with Tab?

    Citation dialog has two modes - list and library. Screen reader users can verify which dialog mode is being used by pressing Shift-Tab as soon as the dialog opens - that will focus a set of radio buttons "Library" and "List", with the selected mode checked. Button selection can be changed with right/left arrows.

    List mode renders item results as a list below the search input field. After you type a search query, if you press Tab, list of item results will be focused and navigating it with up/down arrows should announce item info with additional instructions like "Press Enter to add this item to the citation". Does this happen?

    In Library mode, there is a section of Open/Selected/Cited items below the input, followed by the list of collections and the list of items belonging to that collection. First Tab from search input will focus the first item from Open/Selected/Cited section, if any. Next Tab will focus "Collections" tree, where you can select the collection, and one more Tab will take you to the "Items" table with entries in that collection that match the current search. Selected item row should also have "Press Enter to add this item to the citation" instructions.
  • AccessibleTech
    Hello abaevbog,

    This was for the Zotero Plug-in for Word, Zotero itself is very usable.

    When attempting to add citations in Word and navigate the plug-in with NVDA, nothing is read aloud. Able to tab around, move up and down the suggested list of available citations, but nothing is announced. The Library and List buttons are also not announced.

    Pressing enter on a selected item just enters the details into the document. There are no instructions for adding citation details.

    I'll be meeting with the student on Thursday and will retest your suggestions. I'll share the results of the testing afterwards.
  • adamsmith
    FWIW, I have this working perfectly with Windows Narrator now (don't have NVDA installed on this machine, but in my experience they're usually similar), but had on a previous attempt also completely silent windows with both Narrator and NVDA, so it seems like something can prevent the tool from registering properly with the screen reader. I'll see if I can reproduce, but honestly the first thing I'd try is to restart the computer and see if that fixes things -- as abaevbog says, it's certainly designed to be accessible and works in principle.
  • abaevbog Zotero Team
    The Library and List buttons are also not announced.
    List and Library buttons have standard aria labels, just as most components in the citation dialog. So if you tab around and hear nothing at all - that's strange. Were the NVDA settings modified in any way? You can try to reset NVDA to default settings and see if that makes a difference. Also, ensure your NVDA version is up to date.

    If you are still having issues, you may want to make a screen recording of navigating the citation dialog with NVDA running with the sound on. You can then upload it to your preferred file sharing service and post a link here - that can give us a better idea of what NVDA is announcing/not announcing and when.
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