The popular Opera web browser has been updated to version 9.5, and includes VoiceOver support. Our initial findings show some areas where Opera excels, but several problems as well

The first positives are the fact that Opera appears to be able to move focus to any item on the page, presumably eliminating the Safari issue that causes focus to jump back on a page as Voiceover reads further down. The way in which tables on web sites are handled is spectacular, borrowing from the table views we’re used to in applications like iTunes or Mail. Apple, are you listening? THis is how tables should be done.

But there are some show-stopping problems.

Using Group mode to navigate HTML content seems to change very little in Opera aside from scrambling the order of the elements, a huge drawback to those who depend on VoiceOver’s ability to group elements on a page. Even in DOM mode, elements are not always in the order you would expect them to appear.

Popup buttons, (AKA drop down menus), do not read properly with VoiceOver either. THere is no way we can determine to select an item from one of these common elements.

Still, Opera has clearly put a lot of effort into accessibility, and the browser could be a very powerful alternative to Safari for VOiceOver users once the kinks are worked out.