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Re: Testing with JAWS/NVDA on a virtual Windows 8/10 machine (Parallel's) running on a MAC

for

From: JP Jamous
Date: Oct 10, 2018 5:39AM


I have done it on a Mac Book Pro. I wrote about this in the past on this
list. What you want to do is the following.

1. In Parallel, select the desired VM and go to properties. You can there
configure the keyboard shortcut keys as some are already turned on and would
conflict with JAWS shortcut keys or Windows shortcut keys.
2. Boot the VM in Parallel and while it is booting, unload Voiceover from
memory.
3. Once inside the VM, it should recognize your external keyboard and you
can use the number pad keys as if you are behind a Windows machine.


As with every VM, you have to be careful with JAWS since it relies heavily
on video drivers. Even in Windows, I have noticed that Hyper-v does not
provide JAWS with proper video drivers. So using the JAWS cursor does not
always read the screen. It just states "Blank". That does not happen with
VMWare because it provides a video card to fool Windows and JAWS believes
that bluff.

With NVDA, you should be just fine as it is not reliant on video drivers
like JAWS. Just remember that configuring those shortcut keys in the
properties of the VM are only VM dependent. They are not global changes in
Parallel.

BTW, I mentioned an external keyboard, because I personally find it much
easier for me to use. You can still use the Mac keyboard, but it would be
way easier to have the full keyboard with the numpad keys available.



--------------------
JP Jamous
Senior Digital Accessibility Engineer
E-Mail Me |Join My LinkedIn Network
--------------------


-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of Katie
Haritos-Shea
Sent: Tuesday, October 9, 2018 6:04 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: [WebAIM] Testing with JAWS/NVDA on a virtual Windows 8/10 machine
(Parrallels) running on a MAC

Hello All,

Does anyone have experience doing this?

Testing with JAWS/NVDA installed on a virtual Windows 8/10 machine
(Parallels) running on a MACBook Air?

In the past, in other virtual environments, this has not worked well for me,
or at all, even in a Windows virtual running inside a later version of
Windows, let alone inside a MAC.

I know there is the situations where JAWS is installed on the environment
with special scripts. But this is not a special set up.

An organization I am aware of is a MAC-only shop, and they *think* this will
work. It will be tested to see if it does, but I'd love some feedback from
anyone who has done this before ....

(My brain is going "but the drivers....", and "is it going to access the
Windows AAPI?")

Thanks!!
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