Can't Navigate Headings in Mac OS Safari; Anyone Else Experience This?

By Teresa, 14 December, 2024

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

It seems like VO gets stuck in the navigation elements of a page, and when I either use quicknav or VO-command-h, VO says "no action available". Anyone else had this happen?

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Comments

By PaulMartz on Sunday, December 15, 2024 - 18:25

I just upgraded to 15.2, launched Safari, opened the AppleVis website, and navigated by headings, both with quick nav, and also with VO+Command+H.

Are you seeing the same issue in other browsers?

By Teresa on Sunday, December 15, 2024 - 18:25

Hmmm, Chrome seems to work fine. I'm still mystified, but at least I have another browser to use. Thanks for the suggestion.

By Brian on Sunday, December 15, 2024 - 18:25

Hi,

I am not sure if macOS has the exact same features as iOS does, in terms of Safari functionality. However, is there a chance you have something like turn off distracting items and/or reader mode enabled when you were trying to navigate websites with the Safari web browser?

By Teresa on Sunday, December 15, 2024 - 18:25

Hi, Brian. It's across all websites, and I believe you hide distractions on a page-by-page basis. I don't remember doing this at all, as I'm totally blind, and that seems like a distinctly visual tool. You have to click on borders to hide them, it seems. If there is a global setting for that, it's possible I could have enabled it accidentally. Thanks for the suggestion. Oh, also, I don't have reader enabled for any pages. I enable it as I go.

By TheBllindGuy07 on Sunday, December 15, 2024 - 18:25

No issue for me either. Always do a reboot after the automatic reboot after an update if that's the case for you.

By Justin Harris on Sunday, December 15, 2024 - 18:25

Hi,
It doesn't happen to me on every site. Applevis works fine, but Amazon is definitely broken, behavior is exactly as you describe. Just noticed this today.

By Maldalain on Sunday, December 15, 2024 - 18:25

I am going through this, and if you enable web page load progress you will find that VO keeps telling you that it is something in 90s, while in fact the page has fully loaded. This is why I switched to Brave, at least no YouTube ads at all.

By Teresa on Sunday, December 15, 2024 - 18:25

@TheBllindGuy07 , still the same after rebooting. Yes, I've noticed it mostly on Amazon, but also on other sites. Yes, Applevis is fine. I'm using Google chrome for the time being, since none of this behavior seems to happen with it. Thanks for the feedback.

By PaulMartz on Sunday, December 15, 2024 - 18:25

Teresa, yes, I see this with Safari. This is really disappointing. I switched to Google Chrome as my primary browser earlier this year after Safari shipped with a different major flaw, and apparently I made the right decision. I'm not sure why it's so hard to create an accessible web browser.

Anyhow, I also wanted to note that no headings appear in the VoiceOver web rotor. So, when browsing Amazon with Safari, it's as if Safari never tells VoiceOver that there are headings.

Doesn't Safari have some kind of web developer tools? I've never explored them, because they seem rather complex. But it would be interesting to have someone who knows how to use those tools, take a look at Amazon, and see if any headings are being detected.

By Anna D on Sunday, December 15, 2024 - 18:25

I had the same problem on Amazon. I've been to several sites since that workgh normally, though.,

By Brian on Sunday, December 15, 2024 - 18:25

Which is arguably one of the most difficult websites out there, when it comes to screen reader accessibility.

By Kaushik on Sunday, December 15, 2024 - 18:25

Hi bro, I am also facing the same issue when navigating in some of the websites using heading navigation. I don’t know why is it give me also a solution if you find

By Bruce Harrell on Sunday, December 15, 2024 - 18:25

I believe we are seeing an issue created by their newest web site update. I am running Ventura 13.6.1, and it was working just fine moving by heading just the other day. Today, amazon.com's layout is different, and it is behaving different. Certainly not an improvement.

Merry Christmas!

By Teresa on Monday, December 16, 2024 - 18:25

So far, I have to admit that I've mainly noticed this on Facebook and Amazon. When on those sites, toggling off cursor tracking with shift-VO-f3 seems to work well. so I'm going to stick it out with Safari, because of its integration to iCloud. I still have Google Chrome available, just in case. I have tried using Firefox, but moving to the address bar causes speech to stop. I don't use Brave browser for reasons.

By ray h on Monday, December 16, 2024 - 18:25

I have been experiencing the same issues using Safari across numerous sites. I typically have quick nav on and navigate by heading with the rotor set on heading and use the up and down cursor keys. Sometimes it works and sometimes not. If I turn quick nav on and off once or twice by using the left-right cursor keys it solves the problem for awhile.

By Bruce Harrell on Tuesday, December 17, 2024 - 18:25

First, it's not our MacOS that is the cause. I recently began encountering this problem, and I'm still using Ventura. Something else changed.

Next, it's not the amazon web site since we've been experiencing the issue on other web sites.

Third, for me the problem appeared very recently. These problems are not the result of spontaneous creation or acts of God. They arise because something changed, so here is what we need to figure out before we know our next step in fixing the problem:

1. When did the change occr?

2. What happened around that time so far as our updates are concerned?

Remember, I'm still using Ventura. The problem is not our operating system. It could be safari if we all use automatic updates, but that's my only guess.

Any answers out there?