[Athen] Perusall update

[Deborah Armstrong via athen-list]

Perusall support recorded me demoing how I could easily select text with google docs and Office online with the virtual cursor off but not in Perusall.
They are going to contact the developers of JAWS and NVDA to find out why it works in both those web apps but not in theirs.
I really appreciate this company's over the top commitment and I think we need to realize the screen readers are as much to blame. The read out loud feature is very nice for any student who doesn't need a screen reader but does need speech.
Another issue with browsers is that the tab key, which keyboard navigation relies on when in a web based app, also takes you in to the browser's interface, where you can often get stuck. We should all be complaining to google, Microsoft and Mozilla that they should use F6 and not tab so that tab lets you stay confined within the web page itself.
--Debee


From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Deborah Armstrong via athen-list
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2025 8:54 AM
To: 'Access Technology Higher Education Network' <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: [Athen] Perusall update

So the folks at Perusall are very supportive. Even their CTO contacted me about my accessibility issue.  I am going to screen share with one of their developers in just a few minutes.

Perusall does automatically OCR any document the teacher embeds in its interface. But if it is a low-res image, such as a camera-phone photo of a page, the OCR is lousy. Hence professors really need to put accessible content in to the app.
For selecting text, the keyboard user turns on caret browsing mode and selects text with the shift and arrow keys. To annotate (comment) on it) enter is pressed and the user is now in an edit field, able to easily type and correct text, just as if they were editing a discussion in Canvas.
Screen reader users need to be sure to toggle the JAWS virtual cursor or the NVDA browse mode off. Mac users need to use Chrome or Firefox because they say, Safari doesn't have caret browsing. And I'd guess VoiceOver users would also need to disable the quick key navigation.
Anyway, the problem I believe is really one with the screen readers, as they don't support caret browsing. Once you turn off browse or virtual cursor mode, you get no feedback.
I've written to Freedom Scientific, saying this is a broader issue than just one web-based app. Caret browsing should be fully supported with feedback when that cursor is moved and focus changes.
The screen readers are stuck in this 20th-century paradigm of the static web page, where you occasionally use a Forms or Focus mode to fill in a form. But the reality now of web-based apps means they need to fully support the browser as if it is an operating system.
--Debee


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