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latest update broke accessibility with screen readers

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When Firefox updated yesterday I am no longer able to access the browser with a screen reader. I've tried both JAWS and Window-Eyes. If I turn off MSA mode in Window-Eyes I can tab through the buttons on the start screen, but I'm unable to arrow through the page with either JAWS or Window-Eyes. Darn shame too. I can't stand IE or Chrome.

When Firefox updated yesterday I am no longer able to access the browser with a screen reader. I've tried both JAWS and Window-Eyes. If I turn off MSA mode in Window-Eyes I can tab through the buttons on the start screen, but I'm unable to arrow through the page with either JAWS or Window-Eyes. Darn shame too. I can't stand IE or Chrome.

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You can try to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox.

  • Options/Preferences -> General: Performance
    remove checkmark: [ ] "Use recommended performance settings"
    "Use hardware acceleration when available"

You need to close and restart Firefox after toggling this setting.

You can check if there is an update for your graphics display driver and check for hardware acceleration related issues.

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Hi Chip_McCain, did you update to the regular Firefox 56 release or the beta Firefox 57 release?

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Ok, I unchecked performance and hardware and re-started and still the same thing. No accessibility. I have auto updating turn on. I looked and it updated to FF56. I looked at update history. Is there a way to roll back to FF55?

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There's no "one button" method to install an earlier version of Firefox over the current one. The process is:

(1) Back up your settings "just in case" -- for example, see: Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles

(2) Turn off automatic updating -- see: Advanced panel - Accessibility, browsing, network, updates, and other advanced settings in Firefox (not sure if this article is updated for Firefox 56 yet)

(3) Download and run an installer for Firefox 55.0.3 -- see: Install an older version of Firefox

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You can try to disable multi-process windows in Firefox by setting these prefs to false on the about:config page to see if that has effect.

  • browser.tabs.remote.autostart = false
  • browser.tabs.remote.autostart.2 = false

You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I'll be careful" to continue.