Isn't Skype for Mac accessible any longer?

By Cliff, 29 March, 2019

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

Hi there!
I haven't used Skype for ages, but I downloaded it today on my Mac to be ready for an important Skype meeting coming up this monday.
Last time I used Skype for Mac, I seem to remember that it was fully accessible with VO, but now I can't access anything from the main window. The only thing VO can access is the 3 buttons for Close, Minimize and Full screen.
VO reads a line from the main window when Skype is first opened, but I can't navigate there in any way myself using VoiceOver. I've checked in the window chooser to see if there was any other Skype windows open that I perhaps needed to switch focus to, but there is only 1 window and VO can't access anything there except for the 3 buttons.
Is this something new, that accessibility is broken in the Skype Mac client, or am I doing something very wrong that isn't quite obvious to me?
Just to be clear, my sighted wife sees everything in the main window just fine, and she has no problem using Skype as a sighted user on my Mac. So this is clearly an accessibility issue.
I was hoping to not having to sit and hold my iPhone up for 30 minutes this monday, which is the time the meeting is supposed to last, but it seems like that is my only option at the moment.
Any hints or insights to what is going on or tips to solve this is very welcome! :)

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Comments

By Vsevolod Popov

4 years 2 months ago

Hi! Try to restart your Voiceover. It helps me when I have these situations with skype. Hope that helps!

By Cliff

4 years 2 months ago

Thanks! Yeah, I know that helps in some situations, so I've already tried that, but unfortunately it didn't help this time... But thanks for your suggestion! :)

By Adrian Wyka

4 years 2 months ago

Yes it's true.
Microsoft has spoiled something and the current version of Skype is not working properly.
On the my Mac, if i'm navigating quicknavigation or trackpad, nothing in the window can see.
Strangely enough, when I press the tab, the options are read.

By Joseph

4 years 2 months ago

try closing and relaunching the app.

By Cliff

4 years 2 months ago

Already tried that too... Still no go. But thanks for your suggestion :)
I've closed and reopened the app, restarted VoiceOver, restarted the whole computer, nothing works. I thought that it might only be the login screen that was broken, so I got help from my sighted wife to get logged in, but the main window after I've successfully logged in is still equally inaccessible. I've sent them a bug report, but who knows how long it will last until they fix it. Well, on second thought, Skype isn't made by Apple, so accessibility bugs might just as well be fixed pretty fast! :p
But are some of you using Skype on the Mac now and have VO access to all elements of the main window? If that is the case, could you check which version of Skype you are currently running? Perhaps I might be able to download an older version that may still be accessible...?
And yeah, the tab key thing was interesting. I'll have to try that and see if That work-around could give me some sort of access to the main screen window to the degree that Skype still can be used.
Take care, Cliff