macOS Golden Gate 27 Beta 5 Megathread

Good morning, everyone!
Just wanted to let you know that in macOS 27 Beta 5, image recognition is working perfectly again using VO + Shift + L. On top of that, you can now set a custom shortcut for screen recognition!

I hope it's what I think it is.

Hey everyone, just to quickly correct something: we now have image description and full screen description on Mac! I misspoke earlier when I said 'screen recognition'. It's actually complete screen description!

The only beta I have right now is for iOS. Is the mac OS worth updating? Or should I wait for public release in September. What accessibility features stand out?

Just a headsup that the ocr models for vocr are no longer working in this beta build, apple seems to have messed them up into not responding.

The problem where VoiceOver paused for unnaturally long periods of time when reading web content with VO-a appears to be fixed in developer beta 5. At least they fixed a bug, but I'm still incredibly frustrated and sad an OS that was supposed to focus on bug fixes and other optimizations isn't carrying these changes to VoiceOver. I shouldn't be surprised anymore, and I've just about had it with Apple. They talk a big game, and while it's true they do make a difference with their accessibility features, the prioritization to fix issues just isn't there. It probably never will be, and I should quit expecting it. I really hope I can find an alternate operating system for my M4 Mac mini, otherwise it'll be yet another e-waste product in 5 or so years. No, I don't consider Asahi Linux with GNOME or KDE Plasma to be an acceptable replacement for macOS, especially since Wayland is being forced on everyone.

As someone who has just bought a MacBook M5 Air, what bugs should I be aware of? I'm not sure if AppleVis has a feature to send private messages but if so, please do let me know in private what bugs are you referring to, just so that we don't dilute this topic. Also, what is Wayland?
So far, beta 5 seems to be more stable on my end actually.

There are lots of little problems that have gone unresolved for years. Maybe Apple doesn't consider some of them problems, such as the extremely clunky navigation for the Mac App Store and other Catalyst/universal apps ported from iOS. It took them 9 years to make the Books app reasonably useful, and it's still not what I'd call efficient. If you want to see what I'd consider the gold standard for efficiency and accessibility, look at Mail. That's an example of how interfaces with VoiceOver should work. It's such a shame Apple can't or more likely won't follow their own guidelines across the system. After a while, these problems pile up. Look at the bug tracker for an idea. Maybe these won't bother you, and if so, all the more power to you. I genuinely love macOS, but the lack of attention to bug fixes compared to constantly implementing flashy new features with more bugs is getting ridiculous! I was really hoping Golden Gate would be the much needed Snow Leopard 2.0, but it doesn't seem to be the case, at least as far as VoiceOver is concerned. I'm foolishly hoping things will improve under John Ternus, but that's more than likely a pipe dream.

Wayland is a display server for Linux, but that's all I'll say as to not derail this topic. Feel free to private message me if you wish.

I've used some of the apps that were ported from iOS, and I've never regarded the VoiceOver presentation of the user interface structure and elements as bugs. I suspect they're working as designed. If you don't like the design choices, that's fine, but asking for them to be changed through a reworking of VoiceOver or the relevant UI components is more of a feature request.

I'm not trying to debate the matter here, but rather to say that opinions legitimately differ, and these apps just don't bother me.

There are definitely bugs - features which clearly don't reliably work as intended - and I always report those during the beta process.

I've also been using Wayland comfortably for quite a while now with Linux and Orca, but that's a topic for the non-Apple section of the forum or for the Orca mailing list.

No VoiceOver feedback in Wordpress block editor with Google Chrome
FB24380100

This appears to be a Chrome issue, as Safari behaves correctly. The issue occurs on both Tahoe and Golden Gate. I opened it as a feedback issue regardless in the hopes that Apple can move this issue resolution forward.