Parallels desktop and Voiceover

By daniel, 5 July, 2021

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

Hello,
I'm a relative newcomer to the Mac, running the m1 chip in particular.
I see that Parallels desktop is the main option at the moment for virtualising windows as well as other operating systems, however it appears to be completely inaccessible.
Have any Voiceover users had luck getting this set up and have any tips for same?
Thanks,

Daniel

Options

Comments

By Matthew Whitaker on Thursday, July 29, 2021 - 14:53

Hello. I've tried it out and it is not accessible at all. Sometimes, when I had both Jaws and Voiceover on, one screen reader would read what's happening on the other operating system.

By Missy Hoppe on Thursday, July 29, 2021 - 14:53

I'm still using my 2011 macbook pro with bootcamp, and it's still working like a champ, especially with the 2TB drive that got installed about 2 years ago. Anyway, I know that sooner or later, I'll have to get a new computer, and I've been so impressed with Mac hardware that even though I still do most things in Windows, I'd never consider buying anything but a mac. I was really excited when the new M1 macs came out until I learned that Bootcamp was no longer an option. I was hopeful that maybe Windows 11 would improve things whenever it is officially released, but it doesn't seem as though that's going to be the case. So, like this original poster, I am very curious with regards to the accessibility of Parallels using VoiceOver. I tried using VMWare Fusion back in 2012, I believe, and it was not a good experience; lost JAWS authorizations constantly, and it was far too sluggish to actually be useable. That's why I prefer bootcamp, but if that's no longer a viable option, I'm curious what options I may have that would be comparable in functionality.

By Znd on Thursday, July 29, 2021 - 14:53

Hello, I've been using PD since 2014 and it works pretty well after the struggle of the installation is over. You can do most of the maintenance etc. things via the Terminal , Bash commands. PD's graphical UI is mostly inaccessible due to its graphical design and element libraries. Its performance in use is very efficient when compared to VM Ware or other rivals. Be aware that you need at least 16 gb of RAM to run Win10 with screenreaders smoothly with Parallels. Same applies to WM Ware as well.
Regards Znd

Hi Znd,
That's good to hear re getting this to work after installation.
I don't suppose you have any tips/strategies as far as getting through installation with VO as that is where I am currently stuck?
Cheers.

By alex on Thursday, July 29, 2021 - 14:53

In reply to by daniel

In terminal:
prlctl create vm_name --distribution win-10
prlctl set vm_name --device-add cdrom --image >paste the iso path<
prlctl set vm_name --device-set cdrom1 --enable
prlctl set vm_name --device-set cdrom1 --connect
Now you can start the new machine and after the message of camera and microphone you can activate narrator with cmd+ctrl+enter.