Hi All,


This message rambles a little. In a nutshell, my desktop and my laptop 
are behaving differently, and I'm trying to figure out what the real 
problem is.


On my desktop, I have two unrelated problems.


1. A couple of months ago, I started having some issues with Word 2016. 
Some were accessibility related. For example, I can no longer read 
headers, footers, or footnotes; the screen reader just says, "blank." 
When I have a table of contents, I hear everything as if it were one 
block of text; in other words, I can't arrow to a specific item. Other 
issues are general. For instance, I can't down-arrow from a ribbon item 
to access the options; I have to press enter.


2. When I teach, I use an online portal called Blackboard to post 
handouts, make announcements, and do a few other things. This semester, 
I notice that many of the edit boxes in Blackboard aren't accessible. 
The screen reader just says, "Blank." For example, when I need to post 
an announcement, like the specifics of the next homework assignment, I 
have no problem with the title/subject edit box, but in the body edit 
box, I hear only what I'm typing as I'm typing it. I can't reread the 
edit box to make sure it says what I want, and I can't edit. I've been 
either copying text from a text editor or doing what we did back in the 
typewriter era.


anyway, initially I thought these problems were unrelated. I figured 
word and Blackboard received updates that broke something. Then a few 
weeks ago, I

discovered that Word was working fine on my laptop, so I thought the 
copy on my desktop had gotten corrupted. My plan was to call Microsoft 
tech support about Word and email golks at Blackboard. Then this week, I 
discovered that Blackboard is working fine on my laptop.

I'm running Windows 10 and Jaws 17 on both machines. As far as I can 
tell, everything is up to date, and I don't remember changing any 
settings on one machine that would make it behave differently from the 
other. I've tried using NVDA, but I have the same issues on the desktop.

* My first concern is whether these two problems are related or 
coincidental. If coincidental, my plan of contacting Microsoft and 
Blackboard is a good one. If related, then I might need to do something 
different.

* My second concern is what to do if the problems are related. Would I 
contact Microsoft or the computer manufacturer?

the only real difference I can think of is that one machine is HP while 
the other is Dell. I'll have to double-check, but I think they're both 
64 byt.

any wisdom?

Ciao


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