Any way to lock Focus Mode or ability to pass keys in browse mode?

[jerryscherry]

Steps to reproduce:

A list of the steps you take to demonstrate the problem.

Windows Touch-screen Kiosk with Card Reader running NVDA

1. User swipes their ID card in the card reader
2. Swipe produces this sequence of characters (produced one at a time very quickly) which Windows takes in as if they were key-presses
3. WebAPP uses the data to login.

Expected behavior:

Card Reader should take the ID Card info convert to keystrokes and feed to Windows/Web App

Actual behavior:

With NVDA in Browse mode, Windows gives off the Error Chime every-time a keystroke is pressed, or in the case of the Kiosk when the card info is swiped and converted to keystrokes. Focus mode works however, it reverts back to browse mode every-time the application is reset. End-users will not have access to a keyboard to toggle browse modes.

System configuration:

NVDA version: 2018.1.1

NVDA Installed or portable:

Installed

Other information:

Touch-Screen Kiosk w/ ID Card Reader running Windows and NVDA
On the login page we use Javascript (processed in ServiceNow using Apache Jelly) to run an event listener to listen for keypresses. Specifically, we are looking for a semicolon character as a signal to begin the reading process so we can take in the user’s ID Number. Of course the main issue is that when NVDA Browse mode is on, the semicolon gives that Windows “Chime” sound that usually means error. When NVDA is off, the card reader works fine but of course the kiosk is no longer accessible.

Windows version:

Windows 10

Name and version of other software in use when reproducing the issue:

Other questions:

Does the issue still occur after restarting your PC?

Yes

Have you tried any other versions of NVDA?

No, this issue is most likely isolated to browse mode toggling.

[Adriani90]

try to disable "Trap all non-command gestures from reaching the document" in NVDA menu / Preferences / Browse mode Settings.

[Brian1Gaff]

Could a profile be defined that only happens in this application screen? Obviously one would need a keyboard initially to set it all up though.

[jerryscherry]

@Adriani90 that seem to work for for the ";" key, but this doesn't work for numerical keys 1-4 since those keys are reserved for heading levels commands. An example input for the kiosk when the card reader reads a id card and converts it to key strokes would be:

;10102374032=001524147? (Enter key)

@Brian1Gaff : how would those be used? you mean we could potentially create a profile that automatically switches to focus mode every time the app is on the homepage?

[feerrenrut]

If you can alter the key presses the card reader sends, you can put NVDA into sleep mode with NVDA+shift+s (desktop key shortcut)

[ehollig]

@jerryscherry, does the solution provided in #8167 (comment) help you with this issue? To reiterate, if you can alter the key presses the card reader sends, you can put NVDA into sleep mode with NVDA+shift+s (desktop layout) or NVDA+Shift+Z (laptop layout) before the card reader executes any numbers and can turn off sleep mode after the numbers have been entered with the same command as above. Alternatively, you can send the key NVDA+F2 to pass the next key through to the application. This would have to be performed for every key that is entered though.

[ehollig]

Another solution could possibly be turning single letter navigation off by pressing NVDA+Shift+Space

[Adriani90]

@jerryscherry were the suggestions mentioned above helpful for your purpose? Or do you need a different approach?
cc: @LeonarddeR

[Adriani90]

This should be solved in #8846. @jerryscherry please thest with last NVDA alpha. If you still have this problem, please comment here and we can reopen the discussion. Thanks.