Obtaining Browser and Screen Reader Version Information

Obtaining Browser and Screen Reader Version Information

Last updated: May 3rd, 2022

This page describes how to obtain the version information associated with a running screen reader and/or web browser, which may be needed during manual testing. Note that in all instances, the instructions assume keyboard and screen reader usage; if you are operating a mouse and/or not running a screen reader, you may need to adapt them accordingly.

Web Browsers

Chrome on Windows

1. Open Google Chrome.

2. Move to the "Address and search bar" with Alt+D.

3. Type or paste the following, and press Enter:

   chrome://version

4. With the "About Version" page loaded, press B to instruct your screen reader to navigate to the next button, or find the only button on the page manually. It will be unlabelled.

5. Press the unlabelled button to copy the version information to the clipboard.

6. Paste the version information somewhere to note it down; it will look something like this:

   100.0.4896.127 (Official Build) (64-bit) (cohort: Stable)

Firefox on Windows

1. Open Mozilla Firefox.

2. Press Alt+H to open the Help menu, followed by the letter A to activate the "About Firefox" option. An "About Mozilla Firefox" dialog will open.

3. Locate the version number and copy it to your clipboard. How you do this depends on which screen reader you're running:

   • With JAWS: after the dialog opens, press Tab, once. Focus should land on a text label conveying the version information. Press JAWS+Space, then H, to open the speech history viewer. Move to the bottom with Ctrl+End, locate the spoken version information, select it with Shift+Down Arrow, and copy it to the clipboard with Ctrl+C.
   • With NVDA: after the dialog opens, press Tab, once. Focus should land on a text label conveying the version information. Press NVDA+Space until you hear NVDA announce, "Browse mode". The virtual cursor should already be placed on the line with the version number, but you can verify this by reading the current line, and locate the correct one if necessary. Then, press Shift+Down Arrow to select it, followed by Ctrl+C to copy it to your clipboard.

4. Paste the version information somewhere to note it down; it will look something like this:

   100.0 (64-bit)

Safari on macOS

1. Open Safari.

2. Disable VoiceOver's "Quick Nav" setting, by pressing the Left and Right Arrow keys together until you hear the screen reader announce: "Quick Nav off".

3. Press VO+M to move to the menu bar.

4. Press the letter S, to move to the "Safari" menu, and then press Enter to open it.

5. Press the letter A to find the "About Safari" option, and press Enter to activate it. A dialog will open.

6. Move the VoiceOver Cursor to the right by one item, with VO+Right Arrow. You should arrive at the text element conveying the version and build numbers.

7. Press VO+F3 (including the FN key if applicable on your device), to have VoiceOver read the item under its cursor.

8. Press VO+Shift+C to copy the information to the clipboard.

9. Paste the version information somewhere to note it down; it will look something like this:

   Version 15.0 (16612.1.29.41.4, 16612) text is in the VoiceOver cursor

   Note: you can remove the, "text is in the VoiceOver cursor", suffix.

Screen Readers

JAWS on Windows

1. Press Insert+J to open the JAWS context menu.

2. Press the letter H to open the "Help" submenu, followed by the letter A to activate the "About JAWS..." option. The menu will close and a dialog will open.

3. In the "About JAWS" dialog, press Insert+Alt+W to virtualise the current window.

4. Press Down Arrow repeatedly, until you reach a line that starts with the word "Version".

5. Select this line of text with Shift+End, then copy it to the clipboard with Ctrl+C.

6. Paste the version information somewhere to note it down; it will look something like this:

   Version 2022.2204.20 ILM

7. Close the Virtual Viewer by pressing Escape, and press the same key again to close the "About JAWS" dialog. Or, restart JAWS to achieve the same thing.

NVDA on Windows

1. Press NVDA+Ctrl+Z, to open the NVDA Python Console.

2. Paste in the following text, without any quotes, and press Enter:

   import buildVersion; api.copyToClip(buildVersion.version)
   

3. Paste the version information somewhere to note it down; it will look something like this:

   2021.3.5

4. Close the NVDA Python Console by pressing Escape.

VoiceOver on macOS

Note: it is not known whether VoiceOver, internally, has specific version information that differs from the overall operating system. However, Apple has requested that ARIA-AT testers simply gather the version number and build string for macOS itself.

1. Disable VoiceOver's "Quick Nav" setting, by pressing the Left and Right Arrow keys together until you hear the screen reader announce: "Quick Nav off".

2. Press VO+M, to move to the menu bar, followed by Enter to open the "Apple" menu.

3. Down Arrow to the "About This Mac" option, and press Enter. The menu will close, and a window will open.

4. Press VO+Home (VO+FN+Left Arrow) to move to the start of the window.

5. Press VO+Right Arrow repeatedly, until you hear the word "Version", then press it once more. You should arrive at the overall version number, such as "11.6".

6. Press VO+Space, to activate the version number and make the full build identifier appear.

7. Press VO+F3 (including the FN key if applicable on your device), to have VoiceOver read the item under its cursor.

8. Press VO+Shift+C to copy the information to the clipboard.

9. Paste the version information somewhere to note it down; it will look something like this:

   11.6 (20G165) text is in the VoiceOver cursor

   Note: you can remove the, "text is in the VoiceOver cursor", suffix.