Mac OS 11.3.1 upgrade issue

Submitted by PaulMartz on Tuesday, May 4, 2021.
Member of the AppleVis Blog Team
Forum
macOS & Mac Apps

This morning, I started the upgrade to 11.3.1. After downloading the update, my computer alerted me it would restart in 60 seconds. But when I switched to System Preferences to select the Restart Now link, VoiceOver navigation seemed to be disabled. I could switch to other appsand use them normally, but System Preferences seemed to be frozen and would not let me navigate to the Restart Now button. I had no choice but to wait out the 60 seconds and let the system restart automatically.

Anyone else see this?

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Comments

Submitted by PaulMartz on Tuesday, May 4, 2021

Member of the AppleVis Blog Team

Along with the above, I thought I would summarize all of the accessibility issues I encountered during the 11.3.1 upgrade. Many of these are not new, but the fact that they seem to persist with each upgrade rather than be addressed and resolved is worrisome.

also, as update/upgrade issues, they are inherently not reproducible, and I think most AppleVis users simply move past them any way they can and forget about them. As a result, I see little discussion of these issues and imagine they go largely unreported.

  1. While Setup Assistant is running, VoiceOver announces "Busy, progress indicator". But there is no way to obtain the progress. The progress is displayed visually, but that information is not accessible through VoiceOver.
  2. While Setup Assistant is running, I can still invert colors with VO+Command+8. However, VoiceOver announces the opposite of what is happening visually. For example, switching to white on black, VoiceOver announces "Screen switched to black on white". This is probably because Setup Assistant is not using the default color scheme.
  3. After Setup Assistant, I am prompted to login, and after I do so, the screen switches to a prompt to enter the AppleID password for iCloud. VoiceOver does not announce the appearance of this new window; the user must discover it with VoiceOver navigation keys.
  4. As I previously mentioned in a comment on the 11.3 announcement blog post, when I enter my AppleID password, there is no keyclick or other audio feedback.

Submitted by Craig on Tuesday, May 4, 2021

I have also experienced these bugs and I will contact Apple and let them know as I agree that we can't just leave them if we want the same experience as sighted people when using the Mac.

Submitted by Tyler on Tuesday, May 4, 2021

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

After getting the notification that the computer will restart in 60 seconds, does it work to select the, "Restart," option from the Actions menu? This is how I bypass the countdown, and it works every time without issue.

Also, when Setup Assistant is running post installation, are you able to access the time remaining dialog from the window chooser? I don't do this every time, as I usually just let the upgrade happen, but when I do use it, it's fairly reliable.

HTH

I'll try those suggestions next time. But the behavior I describe still seems like issues that should be addressed. With the Setup Assistant in particular, VoiceOver announces focus is on a progress bar. I should be able to get progress from that element without using the Window Chooser, I'd think.