Facebook has two websites that a
person can use. One of them is the main Facebook website
(which most people prefer) although to some people it is
rather cluttered. The first website can be found at http://www.facebook.com
The second is a mobile Facebook
website. It is rather more streamlined and is the preferred
website for screen reader users. It cuts out a lot of the
clutter that is found on the main Facebook site. This
second website can be found at https://m.facebook.com/
When you go to sign up to Facebook (at
either of the two websites), you will need to create a new
account.
Make sure you record (or write down)
the details for your account. It will ask you for details
such as your first name, last name, date of birth and so on.
It will also ask you for a mobile phone number, email
address, as well as a password. Whichever one you choose to
log into Facebook with (be it your mobile number or your
email address) it will be needed to log into the website
along with your Facebook password. After your details, and
either your email address or mobile phone number have been entered, when
you get to the last of it, it will want you to verify your
account. In the case of an email being sent to you for
verification, it will need to be verified by clicking on it
(in your email inbox).
After this has been done and your
Facebook account is verified, you can then log into the
Facebook website with your details (for example by entering
your email address, or mobile phone number and Facebook
password). This will depend on which one you chose.
About this time (after you have logged
in), you might start scratching your head and wondering
where to go to on the page in front of you.
Facebook is broken up into different
sections that you can navigate to.
These Shortcut keys will vary from
browser to browser so the keys may change depending on which
browser is used.
• For computer users of the Chrome
browser combine the Alt key with the access keys listed
below
• For Internet Explorer users combine
the Alt key with the access keys listed below, completing
each command by pressing the Enter key
• For Mozilla Firefox computer users
press Shift + Alt in combination with the access keys listed
below
Access keys:
1 This will take you to your Home page
2 This will take you to your Timeline
3 This will take you to your Friends
4 This will take you to your Inbox
5 This will take you to your
Notifications
6 This will take you into your
Settings
7 This will take you to your Activity
Log
8 This will take you to About
9 This will take you to terms
0 This will take you to help
To get a general drift of the layout of your
Facebook page, it would be a good idea to use the say all
command in NVDA. For example, use the NVDA key + the down arrow
key for NVDA to read the Facebook page. You will notice
different things being read out on the page. Once you have an
idea of the page layout it is a good idea to go back to the top
of the page. Use the Ctrl key + the Home key to do this. If you slowly arrow down the page now, you will
start working out the page layout.
You will hear different things being read out (for
example Skip to News Feed)
Home (The name of your Facebook page)
Find Friends
Requests
Messages
Notifications
Privacy Shortcuts
Account
Where you hear clickable, this is a link. Where you
hear menu button, sub menu, request, down to account, these are
buttons. Press the spacebar to open a sub menu, then arrow to
see what is under each section.
NVDA can navigate Facebook using its single letter
navigation keys. Most single letter navigation keys used will
work in Facebook. These are buttons, combo boxes, E for edit
fields, F for frames, H for headings, I for list elements, K for
links, L for lists and so on. You must be in browse mode to use
these single letter navigation keys. At times, you will need to
toggle between browse and focus mode then back again in NVDA to
get the job done. You can use the NVDA key + the space bar to
toggle between browse mode (where you can use single letter
navigation keys) and focus mode (where you can type).
In some cases, you
may want to stay in focus mode while on Facebook. This can be
done by pressing the following keys in NVDA. Use the NVDA key +
Spacebar + the Shift key to do this. The following shortcut keys
will turn off single letter navigation mode (until it is invoked
again) using the NVDA key + the space bar (to get back into
browse mode). You may have to toggle it once or twice to get
back into browse mode.
The elements list
can be used by pressing the NVDA key + the F7 key in NVDA. Not
all elements will show up in the elements list. If there is no
alt text assigned to the link you will hear clickable when you
return to the home page.
Exercise
Try navigating
Facebook with NVDA’s single letter navigation keys as mentioned
above (for example using B for buttons and C for combo boxes)
and see where it takes you to on the page, then try the letter H
for headings.
Using the Shift
key + one of the single letter navigation keys will take you in
reverse back up through whichever single letter navigation key
you used.
You can use the NVDA find command to locate certain links, buttons and headings quickly as well. Use the NVDA key + Ctrl + the letter F. This will bring up the find command in NVDA, then type in what you are looking for on the page. The NVDA key + the F3 key will take you to the next instance of that word.
When you set up your Facebook page (in most
cases) people will set up a profile, so other people will know
who they are etcetera. When you go to setup your profile, you
will need to find the name of your page. For example
Accessibility Central.
Under this section will be the following
AccessibilityCentral Net
Update Info2View Activity Log2Other actions
Timeline
About
Friends34
Photos
More
Your profile photo
Update Profile Picture
See All
You might have to change modes so you can see
these extra options. For example use the Spacebar + the NVDA
key to do this.
You can also edit your profile under the edit
profile link (which is just past your home page link). This
will let you add extra details into your profile such as More
Your profile photo
Update Profile Picture
About
Work
Add a workplace
Professional skills
Add a professional skill
University
Add a university
High School
Add a high school
About Section Navigation and so on.
When you log into Facebook usually the first thing you go to
do is check your news feed (to see what has been happening in
the last couple of hours or days). There is a link called skip
to news feed on the page and when you press the Enter key on
it, it will take you to that section. Below you can find a
sample of a story.
Rowan Middleton shared NV Access's post - with
AccessibilityCentral Net and David Ritchie.
2 June at 18:11 Shared with: Public
Finally, it was released. Kudos to the nvaccess
family!
NV Access
2 June at 17:15 Public Science & Tech
NV Access is pleased to announce that version
2016.2 of NVDA, the free screen reader for Microsoft Windows,
has now been released. Highlights of this release in...
See more
http://www.nvaccess.org
NVDA 2016.2 Released. NV Access is pleased to
announce that version 2016.2 of NVDA, the free screen reader
for Microsoft Windows, has now been released. Highlights of
this release include the ability to indicate spelling…
NVACCESS.ORG
3 Like
Rowan Middleton and 2 others
Like
Show More Reactions
If you press the Enter key on the “see more”
button, it will give you more information on the story. You
should hear NVDA say toggle button pressed like. This means
you like the story.
As you arrow down the page you will hear NVDA
say Show More Reactions.
From time to time you will get friend requests.
These are usually from people who want to join your Facebook
page.
You will need to locate the friends request button
on your home page. Use the Ctrl key + the Home key to get you to
the top of the page, then jump down by buttons until you hear
NVDA say button friend request. When located, it will say the
person’s name. Press the Spacebar, then you can choose to
Confirm or Delete the request. If in doubt you can choose to
leave the request there until you decide what to do with it.
Use the Ctrl key + the Home key to go to the top of
the Facebook page. Next, jump down by buttons until you hear
NVDA say button messages. Press the spacebar then you will hear
NVDA say mark all as read button. You can either tab until you
hear the different sections read out or use the NVDA key + the
Spacebar to change into browse mode. Then, it is a matter of
using the up and down arrow keys to read the messages.
From time to time, you might want to tell people
things that are on your mind. These things could be from a
variety of topics that you may be interested in, or you might
wish to comment on something that someone else has already
commented on.
If you would like to tell people what’s on your
mind on your Facebook page (for example using Mozilla Firefox)
use the Alt key + the Shift key + the number 1 on your keyboard.
You should hear NVDA say home clickable. Next,
press the letter E (while in browse mode) so that NVDA lands on
the clickable multi line editable box. You may need to do this
more than once. You should hear NVDA say what’s on your mind.
Next, type in your message, then press the Enter key to post it.
If you would like to add more to the message you will need to
press the Tab key to hear the different options available. Some
of the other options are things like Add a topic (which will
give you some options like science and tech, world news and so
on); Tag people in your post; Add what you're doing or how
you're feeling; Tag a location; Friends; and finally the Post
button. Select the option/s that you would like to use and press
the Enter key. Make your selection within that menu and press
Enter. Tab down to Post. Press Enter to Post what’s on your
mind.
When you press the Enter key on the your posts
link, it will take you to another section called your posts.
This is a heading and might have to be located on the page.
Under this section will be some of the following. For example
Your posts (these are the Facebook posts that you have made
previously).
Review 2 Items
Timeline Review
You've been tagged in 2 posts by Rowan Middleton.
June 2016
2 JUNE
AccessibilityCentral Net wrote on Blind
Foundation's Timeline.
Just to let everyone know, NV Access have just
released the latest version of the free NVDA screen reader.
If you press the Enter key on the like button in
the story it will add another like to the story.
If you would like to comment on the story when
you hear NVDA say button comment, press the Enter key on it. A
screen will pop up where you can type in a comment into the
editable box. Type in your message, then press the Enter key
and your comment will be added to the list of other comments.
Under this same
section it may give you some other options as well.
You can also share the story with other
people. This might be a heart-warming story or a release of
the latest version of a screen reader. What we decide to share
will be different for each one of us. When you press the share
button it will go to all the people on your list.
Press the Spacebar, then you will be given some
other options such as mark all as read button. You will need
to change back into browse mode in NVDA. Use the NVDA key +
the Spacebar to do this. This can be done after pushing on
the notifications button. You may hear stuff like someone
inviting you to play a game with the time it was asked so
many hours ago, another sharing a link on your time line,
another replying to a comment on a post and so on. After
each message there will be a button to mark as read. Just
press the Spacebar to mark it as read, so they don’t show
again.
You can use the up and down arrow keys to read
the notifications section. After you have read any available
notifications, you can go to the mark all as read button and
mark them all in one hit. Now, all of your notifications
will be marked as read. There should not be any
notifications showing now to be read.
Whenever you add a new person to your Facebook
page, it will come up with a whole heap of suggested people you
may know. These, in most cases, will be friends of the person
you are trying to add to your Facebook page. You may have to go
in and tweak your settings so this doesn’t happen under the
privacy settings.
You will have 2 options. One will be to remove the
person. The second is to add that person to your Facebook page.
It will also say the name of the person and how they are
connected to that person. At
present this is something that cannot be turned off.
There are a few different ways to quickly find the
chat section in Facebook. You can jump down by headings to this
section - it is called chat with friends. It is a lot quicker if
the elements list is used to jump down by headings, or you can
use the letter D while in browse mode to jump down by landmarks.
If this first option does not work with NVDA, you
can also use the NVDA find command. When you go to bring up the
find command in NVDA (using the NVDA key + the Ctrl key + the
letter F), it is a matter of typing in the word chat, then
pressing the Enter key. NVDA will land on the start of the chat
list, then, it is a matter of just arrowing down the list and
finding the person you want.
Press the Enter key on the person you want, then a
dialogue box will come up. NVDA should default to this editable
box. You will hear NVDA say type a message. If you simply want
to send the message, press the Enter key and your message will
be sent to that person. There are other options under this
section if you choose to use them such as browsing for a file to
paste on your page, choose a sticker,
choose a gif or sticker, choose an emoji, or send a like. If you
want to send a like to a post to a comment, locate the like
button then press the Enter key. This will send a thumbs up
graphic to that comment.
After you have sent your message or like etcetera,
you can review what has been typed. Just above the area
where you have typed your message will be the message (etcetera)
that you have sent to that person. You can arrow up and down
this section to see what is there. It will tell you where the
message started and ended and the content of the chat. It will
also give you some other options if the person is online such as
Mike is currently unavailable for video calling or Mike is
currently unavailable for voice calling. This will be just above
the conversation or message you have sent. You must have
either a mic or a video camera with a mic to do this.
To close the chat screen, you will need to go to
the link Close Tab part of the message, and press the Enter key.
Just above the chat list is an options button. To
see what other options there are, press the Spacebar; then
hopefully NVDA can see the extra options. If not, you might have
to change focus to browse to focus mode. Then, it is a matter of
using the arrow key to pick an option under that section.
Below will be a list of Facebook shortcuts
that can be used. Not all will work and some may conflict with
NVDA’s single letter navigation keys.
Scroll forward through Newsfeed stories j
Scroll backward through Newsfeed stories k
See more of the selected story Enter/Return
Post a new status p
Like or unlike the selected story l
Comment on the selected story c
Share the selected story s
Open an attachment from the selected story o
Search /
Search chat contacts q
Open a list of these keyboard shortcuts while in
News Feed ?
Search conversations Ctrl + g
Show/hide keyboard shortcuts Ctrl + q
Archive/unarchive conversation Ctrl + Delete
Mark as spam Ctrl + j
Start a new message Ctrl + m
Go to Inbox Ctrl
+ i
Go to Other
If you would like to change any of your privacy settings you will need to locate the privacy button on your home page. When you have located it, press either the Enter key or the Spacebar so that more options can be brought up. You might have to change modes in NVDA if the extra options do not come up. Simply use the NVDA key + the Spacebar to do this. Then, it is a matter of going through the different options that are presented to you to change those privacy settings.
You will need to go to the top of the Facebook page
with the Ctrl key + the Home key. You can either use the letter
B for buttons in browse mode to jump down by buttons to the
account settings button. You will need to push the space bar on
the accounts button so NVDA can see the extra options to log out
of Facebook.
There will be 9 options and the last one will be the logout menu. Arrow to the logout menu, then press the Enter key on it and you will be logged out of Facebook.