Apple has today released macOS Ventura 13.5.1, bringing a fix for a bug that caused location permissions not to appear in Privacy & Security Settings.
As this update appears to have been released to address a specific issue, our expectation is that it does not contain any accessibility changes for blind and low vision users; however, if you notice any changes, improvements or regressions in your own use of this release, please post a comment below with your findings.
To install macOS Ventura 13.5.1, choose System Settings from the Apple menu, select General in the table, click Software Update in the scroll area, and click the Update Now button to begin the update process. If other updates are available, you can click "More info" to see details about them and select specific updates to install.
Comments
New issue with numPad commander
Since upgrading to 13.5.1, I have observed that numPad commander stops working when in a password field / secure text entry field. I have reproduced the problem with both Safari and Google Chrome.
I'm seeing this behavior: One, go to a website like Amazon and log out. Two, enter your email address and navigate to the password field. Optionally enter your password. Three, with focus in the password field, press the numPad right arrow (numeral 6 key).
I expect this would move focus out of the password field. Instead, the numeral 6 is entered in the password field. Note that you might need to select Show Password to make this determination. To workaround, press VO+Right Arrow to navigate out of the password field. After that, numPad works correctly again.
The problem isn't just Amazon, but appears on multiple websites.
Num Pad Commander
The num pad commander bug was introduced in the previous release and it's very annoying. I did report it to Apple and they said they could reproduce it and had sent it on for further investigation. Which sounds familiar.
It's particularly annoying in terminal because I have to enter an MFA code in all the time but I use num pad to scroll down, then inevitably I end up typing in the MFA field without knowing it and have to start building everything again.
New issue with reading text by line
In Scrivener, after upgrading to 13.5.1, using up and down arrow keys to read by line no longer works reliably.
To reproduce, arrow up or down to a line of text. VoiceOver starts reading the line. While it's reading, arrow up or down to the line of text before or after. I expect VoiceOver to immediately stop reading the previous line and begin reading the current line. Instead, it continues reading the previous line.
Toggling VoiceOver off and back on restores expected functionality.