Squirrel version(s)
Appears to be 2.0.1.1
Description
When running a Squirrel installer .exe (generated for an Electron app using the electron-forge and maker-squirrel plugins with default settings), an animation is displayed during install.
If using a screen reader, NVDA in my testing, there is no progress indication during install; you get notification of the window name 'Installing. Window.' and then silence until the install completes and the application loads.
This is not ideal because sighted users did get a progress indication (albeit just an animated gif).
Our accessibility testing team reported this problem with our app. We are going to resolve it by adding an explanation in our accesibility documentation, but I thought it might be useful to report to the underlying project in case a fix is possible later.
Steps to recreate
- Generate a default Squirrel installer for an Electron app
- Start NVDA
- Run the installer .exe
Expected behavior
Assuming there is no progress information available, it would be ideal if the behaviour was the same as NVDA's default behaviour for an indeterminate progress bar, which is basically a steady 'beep... beep... beep...'. If reliable progress information is available then it would be nice if the behaviour was the same as for a normal progress bar, which I think is a repeated tone that gradually increases in pitch. (These are the NVDA defaults, it can be configured under settings / object presentation / progress bars.)
I don't know much about Windows development, so I don't know how to communicate this to a screen reader (i.e. is it possible to pretend that your animated gif window is actually a progress bar).
An alternative could be something like repeated speech 'Installing...' (pause) 'Installing...' (pause) etc. Basically it would just be good if it didn't end up leaving a user confused as to why nothing is happening for 20 seconds or whatever.
Actual behavior
There appears to be no screenreader feedback after the initial window name 'Installing' is announced, which can result in a long pause while the installation completes.
Squirrel version(s)
Appears to be 2.0.1.1
Description
When running a Squirrel installer .exe (generated for an Electron app using the electron-forge and maker-squirrel plugins with default settings), an animation is displayed during install.
If using a screen reader, NVDA in my testing, there is no progress indication during install; you get notification of the window name 'Installing. Window.' and then silence until the install completes and the application loads.
This is not ideal because sighted users did get a progress indication (albeit just an animated gif).
Our accessibility testing team reported this problem with our app. We are going to resolve it by adding an explanation in our accesibility documentation, but I thought it might be useful to report to the underlying project in case a fix is possible later.
Steps to recreate
Expected behavior
Assuming there is no progress information available, it would be ideal if the behaviour was the same as NVDA's default behaviour for an indeterminate progress bar, which is basically a steady 'beep... beep... beep...'. If reliable progress information is available then it would be nice if the behaviour was the same as for a normal progress bar, which I think is a repeated tone that gradually increases in pitch. (These are the NVDA defaults, it can be configured under settings / object presentation / progress bars.)
I don't know much about Windows development, so I don't know how to communicate this to a screen reader (i.e. is it possible to pretend that your animated gif window is actually a progress bar).
An alternative could be something like repeated speech 'Installing...' (pause) 'Installing...' (pause) etc. Basically it would just be good if it didn't end up leaving a user confused as to why nothing is happening for 20 seconds or whatever.
Actual behavior
There appears to be no screenreader feedback after the initial window name 'Installing' is announced, which can result in a long pause while the installation completes.