The following problems in relation to Azure Portal accessibility have been encountered when using this UI with Jaws for windows 18 and NVDA 2016. Both Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome were also tested.

1. the link to add subnets is not properly labeled.


2. It is no longer possible to select the location.


3. When pressinbg E, instead of looking for the last edit field Jaws telling me I'm not in a table.


4. Drop downs are not accessible. The lookup window isn't accessible.


5. Adding a site to site connection on the virtual network gateway. Unable to select a local network gateway. The blade appears blank.
   Adding a site to site connection on the virtual network gateway. Unable to select a local network gateway. The blade appears blank.

I recently purchased an Xbox console. Here are my thoughts on the experiences so far and I think an underlying theme of where accessibility breaks and needs to improve. I am really passionate about making this a good console for users, so opening dialog up about this is critical. That's why I was super excited when I purchased my console a few weeks ago, a moment where I was confident that at least I'm getting some out-of-box accessibility solutions and a company dedicated to their mission.

First, the biggest issue with Narrator, as it stands, is this controller-keyboard compromise I mention in the subject line. When I first opened the console and set it up, I used windows + enter on the keyboard to start up Narrator. I wish I would have tried the controller, but alas, I didn't. Still, I switched quickly to using it because I remembered how the navigation works with each stick / scrolling with the trigger buttons, so I thought it would work easier.
Boy was I wrong. The problem is that the navigation done by this d-pad on the controller is different than your standard tab and shift-tab action. I believe there were dialogs, like the wi-fi selection, where I could not use the controller but had to rely on the keyboard. In any web content, such as when you're creating a live gamertag for the first time and are asked questions, navigation with the stick is not possible. I had to switch to the keyboard because I also wanted to type quicker, and noticed this.
Then we get to the main Xbox interface. When you tab and shift-tab in there, Narrator will sputter and just can't handle itself. Alt+tabbing works, and I know there are shortcuts on the keyboard for multitasking. I have used these before and of course Narrator includes a set of its own commands for things like speech rate changing. Again, changing speech rate is not possible from the controller as of now.
Any kind of text content, such as static text on a label in a dialog, cannot be read or explored with the controller alone.
Why should those who are users of the screen reader rely so much on this disjointed interaction model between keyboard and controller? Should we be required to use a keyboard just because a screen reader is in need of more commands which would be harder to map to a 5-10 function input device? (Note: I didn't count this, but logically thinking...) For which commands should keyboard interaction be retained? For example, I would not expect to change verbosity levels on the controller or have special table reading commands. Putting performance issues aside with Narrator (and why some UWP apps like Pandora crash after Narrator is running but not before,) this is a huge issue which, in my opinion, plagues accessibility forward.
The closed-nature of the Xbox insider program means getting access to this seems difficult at the moment, but I'd love dialog from anyone at Microsoft, and especially the community of those using this product, on what their thoughts are. I'm thrilled that Microsoft has a chance to be innovative in this space, being essentially the first console to provide a full-level screen reader experience. I am 100% in no doubt that the engineers and teams there are aware of this problem to some degree, so perhaps having more insight on the experience from a user could bring greater clarity (and urgency) to that situation. :)

With respect-
Tomi

The default high-contrast themes do not make use of the option to set a background color for buttons. Instead, they rely on the fact that default button styling includes a border, and set that border to the button text color. Buttons are thereby visually distinguished as text surrounded by a border. Some of the default high-contrast themes also use a different text color for buttons, but not all.

This creates a problem when these styles are applied to websites in MS Edge. Many modern websites do not use border styles on buttons, instead relying on the background color, rounded corners, and graphical effects (e.g., shadows or gradients) to visually distinguish buttons. When the standard high-contrast styles are applied, buttons without borders lose any visual distinction relative to the rest of the text.

One option would be to force a border on all buttons when high-contrast mode is in use. But this would likely throw off the layout of many websites, since adding a border changes the size of elements. Adding a distinctive background color causes fewer side effects.

TL:DR
-Control voice speed by words per minute instead of arbitrary % value

-Highlight each word as it's voiced. Allow pausing, rewind (e.g. 10 words, 1 sentence.) and skipping ahead. Read mode where successive paragraphs are immediately started after the previous completes itself.

-More options to enable or disable actions which cause voice output (e.g. don't read paragraphs/only read paragraphs on screen, not windows names etc.)

Hi,

I think narrator is really excellent and you've done a great job making it. Thanks!

I have some suggestions for features, I expect they may be considered already, but I think they would be very helpful.

First, having the speech speed as a % value is inconvenient for new and experienced users because anyone aware of what speed they listen at, say using another app or device,are required to use trial and error to find the % speed they prefer. Words per minute is a more real applicable tangible measure.

Second, the ability to pause a paragraph or sentence, to repeat a sentence, skip ahead, rewind, would be very helpful for listening. Especially when large paragraphs count as one sections of speech. As such, an option to highlight each word as it is voiced would help. Related, an option to have continuous reading enabled, so that once one paragraph completes, the next begins, would improve flow for reading articles, documents etc.

Third, while using narrator, redundant information is voiced regularly,
so options to control whether something should be output would be convenient.

Thanks so much for considering adding these features, I hope they make sense!