MS Office Accessibility on Mac: Who Is Responsible for the Issues?

By SiddarthM, 6 June, 2024

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

using office365:
From the very first day of using my Mac, I've found the accessibility of MS Office apps like Word and PowerPoint to be profoundly disappointing, especially when using VoiceOver. As a literature student, I primarily use these apps for navigating documents, formatting research papers, and creating and presenting PowerPoint slides. However, nothing seems to work seamlessly with VoiceOver on my M1 Air.

Is Microsoft falling short in optimizing their apps for Mac, or is Apple not adequately supporting MS Office applications? I also have a Windows laptop, which I'm using to write this post. However, my 6-year-old Dell Inspiron becoming slower and with a battery that barely lasts. This is particularly concerning as I need a reliable laptop for daily use at my university.

If Microsoft is to blame, is there anything we can do to address this? Can we bring these issues to their attention in a meaningful way? It's frustrating to see such a significant investment in a Mac not supporting essential daily workflows effectively. I'm eager to hear your thoughts and any solutions that might be out there.

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Comments

By Igna Triay on Sunday, June 9, 2024 - 08:46

If you ask me, microsoft is to blame in this case, as its their apps. Odd thing is, if you use excel on mac, it works no problem accessibility wise, but for some reason they neglected the rest of the office apps like word. But yeah, this is squarely microsoft's responsibility.

By Jonathan T on Sunday, June 9, 2024 - 08:46

The Microsoft apps do not use a significant number of the system-wide features of macOS so it isn't surprising to read that they aren't great with Voiceover either.

Fwiw, they're awful for sighted users too for the same reason. Keyboard shortcuts that don't match universal system ones, text autocomplete and dictionaries that are independent from the system ones, etc.

Out of curiosity, is the accessibility better or worse if you use the online versions of the apps (if you can)?

By Ollie on Sunday, June 9, 2024 - 08:46

Same boat, though I'm doing an MA in creative writing. I've had to look elsewhere and am using a mixture of pages for comments and ulysses for composition.

It is profoundly disappointing, indeed.

Regarding the online versions, they are worse. Aside from lacking shortcut keys, if you're running them in safari, you get SNR.

Mac is junk for blind authors. Even ulysses, an app I used to love, is degrading due to issues with back end saving of files.

By Jonathan T on Sunday, June 9, 2024 - 08:46

Thanks for the feedback on the browser versions. Disappointing but can't say I'm surprised.

By Ollie on Sunday, June 9, 2024 - 08:46

Just having a quick go with Word on my iPad, it seems slightly more well behaved than the mac version, though I'm not sure it's as full featured. May be an option, depending on what you actually want from the app.

By Jason White on Sunday, June 9, 2024 - 08:46

I would suggest reporting the bugs to Microsoft, with clear documentation of (1) steps to reproduce each issue, (2) the results you expected, and (3) the result that actually occurred.
Someone here may be able to recommend the appropriate Microsoft support channel.

By Ollie on Sunday, June 9, 2024 - 08:46

Just to ad to my earlier comment re Microsoft Word on iPad... It does seem better than on the mac. There are still many things I dont' know how to do, but was able to add a comment and read it, though couldn't tell what I'd applied it to. It's certainly more stable with simple text entry though. Just wanted to say it might be worth an explore for those who have an iPad, or even iPhone. The iPhone version is more compact and therefore quite a bit easier to navigate.

Though, we shouldn't have to be tracking this down to do one of the most basic tasks in the world's most prolific app.

By Jason White on Sunday, June 9, 2024 - 08:46

I spent some time experimenting with Microsoft Word for Mac somewhat recently. As I documented in a different thread, text entry and editing worked well. I noticed the following bugs in particular:

1. The comment entry text field is not accessible with VoiceOver, and the label is repeatedly read. I can't read or edit the comment text.

2. If I attempt to load a large document, there is a very long delay while it loads. This has been noted in AppleVis fora previously by others.

3. If there are comments in a document, I couldn't find a way to move from the text to which the comment applies to the comment text and back again.

4. Only the Print layout view is accessible with VoiceOver.

5. As someone else noted on AppleVis, the move to next/previous heading comments don't work in Microsoft Word, but you can use Ctrl-Option-U to obtain a list of headings and you can navigate to them.