Is iCloud accessible with Windows' screen readers?
By Serina Gilbert, 19 June, 2014
Forum
Windows
Has anyone had any luck accessing iCloud nline with a screen reader such as JAWS for Windows? I have tried and as far as I can tell, it is not accessible with a screen reader.
I am running the latest build of OS X El Capitan on my mid-2013 MacBook Air, and I have been perusing iCloud. It seems to be very accessible now with both VoiceOver and Chromevox in both web browsers. This is good news because my father suggested at a recent meeting that rather than use an external hard drive, I might just use iCloud. I haven't had time to check out all the settings yet as I've been doing other things, but I'm impressed thus far. I actually was unaware that iCloud could be used for so many things.
Wow, what a mess! I can do some things using Jaws's Convenient OCR function, but that's about it. Then again, given how fun iTunes is to use on the Windows side, I'm not surprised by this at all. Time to drop accessibility@apple.com a note and see what they say.
Hello,
I sent an email to the accessibility email address a couple of days ago. I got a response saying they were aware of the issue and were working on a fix.
So, has anyone found a good work around or a script, or a response from Apple? I am considering sfinally switching to Android based on this long standing struggle to be able to simply transfer files to and from a Windows PC to iPhone and vice versa.
I installed the iCloud app on my Windows PC and the iCloud Drive folder was created for me. it shows up in Windows Explorer just like everything else. I've also got it working with Outlook on the PC. I seem to remember it wasn't exactly a breeze setting all of this up but nor was it insuperably difficult.
I have successfully configured iCloud on my Windows PC using JAWS, but it wasn't easy. Apple's implementation of Apple software on Windows PC's generally has a lot to be desired and that has been a long standing issue.
That being said, you should be able to configure iCloud drive, as well as syncing of Bookmarks as well as Outlook Contacts and Calendars using JAWS.
I had more success with the version of iCloud which I downloaded from the Microsoft Store. don't know what the difference is between that version and the version one gets on the Apple site, but there did seem to be a difference.
As another note, when using JAWS these days I have the "Use Accesibility Driver" unchecked in the JAWS Settings Center under the Default Configuration. This is checked by default which means that JAWS is using the legacy method of seeing text on the screen. Due to changes Microsoft has been making under the hood in Windows 10, the legacy driver is seeing less and less text. Thus FS is slowly rolling out the next generation driver which seems to be working better and better as time goes on. The new driver will be the default method in the future but already works better with many programs than does the legacy driver.
Hope that helps. Maybe Apple will also think more about accessibility when they put together their apps for Windows PC's in the future.
Comments
I don't know where to get it
I don't know where to get it but the icloud control pannel for windows is suposed to replace the icloud website to a point.
Take care.
iCloud
No is not accessible in window. I am not sure with safari in a mac.
It's about 95 percent
It's about 95 percent accessible on osx. but yeah try the icloud control pannel and see if that helps.
Take care.
Seems to Work Here
I am running the latest build of OS X El Capitan on my mid-2013 MacBook Air, and I have been perusing iCloud. It seems to be very accessible now with both VoiceOver and Chromevox in both web browsers. This is good news because my father suggested at a recent meeting that rather than use an external hard drive, I might just use iCloud. I haven't had time to check out all the settings yet as I've been doing other things, but I'm impressed thus far. I actually was unaware that iCloud could be used for so many things.
iCloud for Windows Barely Accessible
Wow, what a mess! I can do some things using Jaws's Convenient OCR function, but that's about it. Then again, given how fun iTunes is to use on the Windows side, I'm not surprised by this at all. Time to drop accessibility@apple.com a note and see what they say.
iCloud for Windows
It was nearly fully accessible until one or two updates ago when it became just a blank interface for any screen reader I tried.
Already sent an email to Apple Accessibility
Hello,
I sent an email to the accessibility email address a couple of days ago. I got a response saying they were aware of the issue and were working on a fix.
Regards,
Greg WOcher
iCloud accessibility
yeah, I sent a message for accessibility to that iCloud for windows, hopes they fix soon.
iCloud for Windows is still not accessible using a screen reader
I'm using it without difficulty
I installed the iCloud app on my Windows PC and the iCloud Drive folder was created for me. it shows up in Windows Explorer just like everything else. I've also got it working with Outlook on the PC. I seem to remember it wasn't exactly a breeze setting all of this up but nor was it insuperably difficult.
Accessibility of iCloud with JAWS
I have successfully configured iCloud on my Windows PC using JAWS, but it wasn't easy. Apple's implementation of Apple software on Windows PC's generally has a lot to be desired and that has been a long standing issue.
That being said, you should be able to configure iCloud drive, as well as syncing of Bookmarks as well as Outlook Contacts and Calendars using JAWS.
I had more success with the version of iCloud which I downloaded from the Microsoft Store. don't know what the difference is between that version and the version one gets on the Apple site, but there did seem to be a difference.
As another note, when using JAWS these days I have the "Use Accesibility Driver" unchecked in the JAWS Settings Center under the Default Configuration. This is checked by default which means that JAWS is using the legacy method of seeing text on the screen. Due to changes Microsoft has been making under the hood in Windows 10, the legacy driver is seeing less and less text. Thus FS is slowly rolling out the next generation driver which seems to be working better and better as time goes on. The new driver will be the default method in the future but already works better with many programs than does the legacy driver.
Hope that helps. Maybe Apple will also think more about accessibility when they put together their apps for Windows PC's in the future.
--Petefor WIndows