Google Chrome/Gmail on the mac

By Andrew, 27 May, 2014

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

Hello All,

I am considering purchasing my first Mac. I have been a JAWS user for the last 10 years now and like it very much. However, I heavily use google apps on my 5s and I would love to use chrome more on my laptop. JAWS is not very friendly with google Chrome/gmail(inside of chrome browser). Does VO work well with these two aspects on the Mac? For instance, I am not able to re-read an email I have typed up before I send it inside of google chrome using gmail, the messages just read "blank.," when I know that I have written a message. Does this same thing happen on the mac side of things with VO for instance? Any info users of these items would be willing to share would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. -Andrew-

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Comments

By KE7ZUM on Thursday, May 29, 2014 - 04:50

I have not tried replying to emails using google chrome but chrome works quite well on the mac. I'll contact you via your apple vis contact thingy with more info and some more stuff.

be blessed and take care.

By Isaac Hebert (not verified) on Thursday, May 29, 2014 - 04:50

Yes google crome works pretty well on the mac. I haven't tried to reply to email in google crome yet.

By Ekaj on Thursday, May 29, 2014 - 04:50

I have used Google Chrome on my Mac Book Air both with VoiceOver and Chromevox. Chromevox is Google's screen reader extension for the Chrome browser. It works quite well, although my experience has been that sometimes some of the voices cut out right in the middle of a message. But I've used both Chromevox and VoiceOver with my work email account, which is a subdomain of gmail and they work great. I hope this answers your question as I'm not sure if gmail subdomains work exactly the same way as gmail itself. Chromevox is at http://www.chromevox.com if you want to check it out.

By splyt on Thursday, May 29, 2014 - 04:50

I will say that you should be aware that navigation chjanges considerably in mac when coming from a JAWS perspective. This is an objective statement so be prepared to change the way you use the web.
The subjective part * which is best or worse * ... will deppend upon personal preferences and on html of webpages. I tend to dismiss folks who say that JAWS is worse and that voiceover is worse.
While I use mac os most part of times, reading extensive documents such as online tutorials or big texts is better with JAWS, and also in my opinion JAWS still is faster on reading pages. But voiceover will be better in some pages so I keep both and use each one to do what they are best doing.
So making a switch only because you are not satisfied with the way JAWS will handle things in chrome is not adivisable in my opinion.

Actually I have not used windows in over 4 years. I feel very comfortable in reading web pages. yOU just have to know how it is laid out visually and you can really hear that with voice over. It has helped me develop better looking web pages and place the elements where I want them to be.

Again this is why I it's related to opinion. I could say that you are not updated on windows and therefore are not able to give a consise opinion and we would start a blame. But this is not needed, because as I said it is a mather of opinion. I do use mac considerably well, but for me JAWS is still faster. This is the subjective part of things, so he / she will have to decide once he / she does the switch of systems. But, the objective part is, and I think that noone can tell anything different, that a switch won't give him / her a JAWS like system that happens to run chrome better than JAWS currently does.
Making a switch is not something that must be done because of a single feature and does have consequences, learning curve, etc, etc, etc. JAWS does give you freedom to script things if they are not right. VO doesn't give so much freedom. The way file systems work is not the same. Some devices might or not work. So many things to consider. After all, I did the switch and what I am saying is that it is not as simple. Telling "hey, chrome works great with VO so yeah! go ahead and do the switch" might be cool, byut it wouldn't be responsible. Instead, one desiring to make the switch must search for help and advice after they know their own needs and do it if they are reazonably sure that the switch will be better.

By Callum Stoneman on Thursday, May 29, 2014 - 04:50

Hello,

I find that Chrome works great with VoiceOver, I use it as my main browser instead of Safari. For the gmail question I'm not sure as I don't use gmail, but you wouldn't really need to use it on the web. The mail client that comes installed on Mac supports gmail accounts, I could be wrong but I don't think there is one on Windows that does this. If you did need to use it on the web though and VO didn't work, you could always give Chromevox a try.
As a browser though Chrome is great and, while the navigation changes might take a bit of learning, it is more accessible than how I've seen JAWS work with it.