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Firefox Dev Tools Accessibility

phoenixtilea
phoenixtilea
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Hi there. I'm a blind web developer and I was wondering if there is some way to make the Firefox developer console more screen reader friendly. As it stands, I have no way of viewing JavaScript runtime errors or much of anything besides the element hierarchy when inspecting an element, and even this only provides very little information. I ask because there seems to be a big focus lately on testing for accessibility, but the tools to do so seem completely inaccessible themselves.

I would welcome any suggestions on how to use/improve the dev tools with a screen reader (I'm using NVDA) or an add-on I can down load that would be more friendly to me. I saw a mention of one called "Firebug", but that appears to be an outdated post.

Hi there. I'm a blind web developer and I was wondering if there is some way to make the Firefox developer console more screen reader friendly. As it stands, I have no way of viewing JavaScript runtime errors or much of anything besides the element hierarchy when inspecting an element, and even this only provides very little information. I ask because there seems to be a big focus lately on testing for accessibility, but the tools to do so seem completely inaccessible themselves. I would welcome any suggestions on how to use/improve the dev tools with a screen reader (I'm using NVDA) or an add-on I can down load that would be more friendly to me. I saw a mention of one called "Firebug", but that appears to be an outdated post.

All Replies (2)

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 25 Contributor
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Hi phoenixtilea, the Developer Tools pane has some little tabs to switch between the Inspector, Console, and Debugger, as well as any optional panels you add. I don't know whether NVDA sees those.

Would it be useful to know that the keyboard shortcut for the Web Console is Ctrl+Shift+k ?

Or the menu path via the top menu bar is Tools > Web Developer > Web Console ?

The Web Console now has two modes, single line and multi-line. This changes the respective layout. If you are not going to be entering commands, the classic single-line layout probably is better for your needs because the messages are on top.

phoenixtilea
phoenixtilea Question owner
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Opening the console wasn't an issue, but thanks for the descriptions. Knowing errors should appear above in single-line mode does help. Some of the various tools are still extremely frustrating to use, but just having access to information about syntax errors is a huge improvement.

Additional question: Do you know of any way to make the devtools panel obey the dark mode settings. My vision is completely useless but I can still perceive light and the bright white against the dark everything else is painful. (I'm sure I'm not the only one that would appreciate this feature if it doesn't already exist).