Skype Sliding Further Backward on Accessibility

Darrell Shandrow wrote a Support Question to Skype because with new features of Skype emerging old accessible ones seem to go away.

She wrote in her blog: “Despite numerous contacts with Skype staff, we in the blind community continue to observe not only a lack of forward movement on accessibility, but actually a backward slide. It has come to our attention that the latest version 1.3.0.29 beta of Skype for Windows has removed the Call > Call Contacts submenu upon which many of us have relied as an effective, accessible way to call our online Skype contacts. The needless removal of this option forces blind users into the rather inaccessible Call Contacts panel, which works reasonably well only for users of a specific screen reader for which a group of volunteers have written customized scripts. Even these special scripts are often subject to breaking as Skype makes changes to user interface elements.”

Source: Darrell Shandrow’s Blog