Using IntelliJ IDEA with VoiceOver on Mac

By Vsevolod Popov, 22 August, 2021

Forum
App Development and Programming

Hello,
I am a beginner in automation QA. Mainly I use windows for coding, but I also have an old MacBook Air 2017.
I mostly use Visual Studio Code for writing tests in Java, but recently I am getting tired with Java implementation in this IDE.
Yes, it is a really great solution in case of Accessibility that works perfectly on all operating systems (Windows, MacOS, Linux).
But Java and Maven implementation is something really horrible there.
I decided to try to use IntelliJ Idea on both windows and Mac because I heard that some blind developers do it successfully with VoiceOver.
Because of it is an Apple specific forum, I will describe issues that I've encountered while using IntelliJ on Mac, but actually I have the same issues in windows.
1. How do I manage files/folders in project structure tree view?
Example to clarify:
1. I launch IntelliJ, press new project button in the main dialog.
2. After creating a Maven project which can be done successfully, I land into the project structure tree view.
3. I want to create a Java class in src/main/java.
I move to src with down arrow, expand the folder, then do the same thing with main folder.
Then I move to Java folder.
Press VO+shift+m to activate the menu.
I imagine that if I press VO+shift+m on the focused file or folder, the menu will be opened and I can create a new Java class, folder, delete the folder, run the test if it is the test class and ETC.
But instead of that I just hear the VO sound that the command isn't supported.
So, how do I complete this simple task with creating the java class in src/main/java or manage any focused file/folder?
I reported the same issue with this problem on windows on their bug tracker that it isn't possible to open the context menu.
How do you manage that task?
Next, how do you run tests? What steps should I perform to do that with VO?
I would like to learn using IntelliJ IDEA with screen readers for writing java tests and learning QA easier.
P.S. If you use IntelliJ IDEA successfully on windows with NVDA please contact me at:
sevapopov13@gmail.com
So I will be really glad to know your experience and ask some questions about it.
Thank you!
Vsevolod

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Comments

By Victor Tsaran on Sunday, August 22, 2021 - 21:27

I'll start by saying that my experience with InteliJ is quite limited. I know that it partially works with VO on Mac OS, but some implementation problems of Java widgets exist that prevent a good experience.
You might want to try a right-click with VoiceOver where control+option+shift+m doesn't work.
First, route VO cursor to keyboard cursor by pressing VO+command+f5, then open VO Help menu, VO+h, then go to Commands submenu, then start typing "right-click", which should take you to the correct option. Activate it and see if this does not click the context menu you're looking for.

By mr grieves on Tuesday, November 22, 2022 - 21:27

Just found this post and wanted to say that this year there have been some really good improvements to IntelliJ with VoiceOver. Well, I use PyCharm and believe it is the same.
I think it might be the EAP of PyCharm 2022.3 but suddenly VO+Shift+M has started working everywhere. And menus are actually spoken out now.

By Vsevolod Popov on Tuesday, November 22, 2022 - 21:27

Hi! Woah, that's actually really cool! I wasn't sure if they are doing accessibility improvements, that's so cool they do! I recently found a really improved documentation regarding accessibility of IntelliJ and how to get started, so that gave me a hope that things are improving. Thank you for your note!

By mr grieves on Tuesday, November 22, 2022 - 21:27

If you post issues in their forum you are much more likely to get a response than if you just drop them into the bug tracker.

Don't get me wrong, there's plenty that still isn't great, and lots of bugs that have been around for ages. But maybe a year ago I was very depressed with the situation and wasn't expecting it to have improved so much.

But don't bother with Fleet, which I think is their answer to VS Code and is a new IDE written from the ground up. It is totally inaccessible at the moment. I used a private early release version and nothing worked - the text editor, dialogs, everything was just silent. But now they've put a user agreement in front of it, so I can't even get that far. But feel free to yell about it too. They've promised to enable accessibility but that that doesn't really wash with me.

By Vsevolod Popov on Tuesday, November 22, 2022 - 21:27

Hi,
Thank you for your tip about the forum. From what I've noticed, if you write a post about an issue on the forum there will be people who will tell you to post it on bug tracker and not on a forum.
But the problem is that bug tracker has accessibility issues, I cannot even normally filter my search results, I want to search for accessibility bugs to vote for them but nothing happens.

By mr grieves on Tuesday, November 22, 2022 - 21:27

I'm sure I've had some issues with the bug tracker, but I think I can usually just about manage whatever simple things I need to do on it. If you do find things that don't work, it might be worth posting on the YouTrack forum (I presume there is one).
I have a bit of a monster thread on the IntelliJ forum here: https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360009718839-Using-IntelliJ-with-a-screen-reader?page=3#community_comment_8294949698066

Whenever I find something I tend to just reply to that. I've often had bugs reproduced and reported on my behalf which is great when it happens.

By mr grieves on Tuesday, August 22, 2023 - 21:27

The 2.0 version of the Jetbrains Toolbox App was released the other day. Other than a couple of niggles, it is now accessible! I can finally uninstall apps and tinker with options.

It works best with tabs and arrows instead of VO keys, but actually it's pretty usable with the VO keys too.

I've found a couple of oddities, a couple of times I've come across a rogue unlabelled button but then I've not been able to find it again. The toolbox settings don't seem to tell you if they are selected or not. I don't know if changing them does anything.

But otherwise it's pretty good, and is quite nice if you have multiple IDEs and want to manage them together.

Also in 2.0 it is supposed to keep the installed Applications in the Applications folder rather than using new folders for each new version. This doesn't seem to be the case for me but I've not looked too hard. It should be easier to setup Activities for the IDEs now, although I never seemed to have trouble with it before but I'm not sure how it ever worked.

There's also an accessibility improvement in 2023.2 to the IDEs. Instead of the option to read aloud a notification, which previously used the Spoken Content voice, they are read out with the screen reader. This should also work with Windows, I'm told.

I'm currently struggling with the setup. I think maybe the settings window doesn't work but hopefully this will get resolved. If so it's a nice improvement as it should stop having multiple voices talking over themselves. And if it does work on Windows that would be great.

By Vsevolod Popov on Friday, September 22, 2023 - 21:27

That's really cool!!!!!! I wanted to comment in the day when you wrote about that, but do it only now. It is awesome that they finally improve accessibility of their products, I can also see notifications from their bug tracker that things are moving with IntelliJ Idea!

By mr grieves on Sunday, October 22, 2023 - 21:27

Well I've been round the houses with Jetbrains support and think I have finally got the new notifications working with VoiceOver. I think my problem was that the settings UI is horrible and I can't make any sense of it.

There is a setting to change the screen reader priority from High/Medium/Low. This settings is a general one applying to all settings. The actual setting you need is the display type. If it's Balloon or Sticky Balloon it works.

But I couldn't seem to get the UI to change it properly. It looked right, but the notifications never worked. But you can do it manually.

Open up /Users/[user name]/Library/Application Support/JetBrains/PyCharm2023.2/options/notifications.xml Here is the sample that should enable test result notification announcement:
<application>
<component name="NotificationConfiguration">
<notification groupId="Test Runner" displayType="BALLOON" />
</component>
</application>
The notification entry is responsible for the "Test execution finished" setting. Please ensure that groupId key has "Test Runner" value.

One thing I tried before this was exporting the settings then re-importing. Don't do this as I ended up messing up all my other settings. (I think if you import a file containing just notifications then it ends up setting everything else to default)

Anyway, not sure if this is useful to anyone else but thought I'd post it here in case. This is for PyCharm 2023.2 but should be the same for any other IntelliJ based IDE.