Update: I just loaded an AO3 page in Google Chrome, and it still said the font was Lucida Sans Unicode, but still showed bold and italics to my screen-reader when I checked my test work.

I once more do not know what is going on here and really wish my original thread had not been archived!

Apologies if you've answered this in the previous thread, but does forcing websites to use Firefox's preferred font make any difference to how the screen reader functions on this site?

You can toggle this preference by going to Settings, and then, in the general sub-section, under fonts there's a button labeled "Advanced". If you click that then you'll find a checkbox labeled "Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of your selections above". I'm curious if unchecking that box (it's checked by default) and then trying to view a story makes any difference. It might help to narrow down if this is an issue with the particular font used, or something else.

Have you had an account with this site for a long time? I'm wondering if maybe when you switched to the low-vision mode it overwrote whatever CSS rules the skin you were using had and that's why trying to switch back isn't working for you.

I'm not too familiar with this particular website, but I looked around and it does look like they provide the CSS code for their skins (including the low-vision and the parents code for their base skins) at this link. Doesn't seem like you can change skins without having an account and being logged-in, but maybe someone more knowledgeable about CSS than I am could take a look at that and see if there's anything that looks 'off' there.

So I'll answer your second question first. I have had an account on this site since 2014. I hadn't done anything with skins before this incident last November due to concerns about accessibility. As it turns out, my worries were not groundless.

I did explain this in the previous thread, but to summarise, the problem persisted whether or not I was logged in, and even in completely fresh iterations of Firefox (a profile with all default settings, and then an unaltered portable version of Firefox). Only in Chrome did things look normal, and they did not become abnormal when I logged in on that browser.

Now, regarding the setting you pointed me to, I unchecked the box and went to the page I have been going to for testing ever since I did this.

I can now see bold with my screen reader on AO3, but not italics. This is odd because the default font in question is Aerial. And the font used in Reader view is also Aerial. And I could see all formatting including italics just fine in Reader View. It's been my workaround since this whole thing started, but I can't read comments or author's notes in Reader View, and losing the formatting for those means I lose access to layers of meaning given by emphasis.

Thank you for pointing me at this setting, though. It may be able to help us finally work out what the blazes is going on.

Trix, just some thoughts.

Does the site display with diferent fonts / styles in Chrome? I am wondering if the site itself uses different settings depending on the browser viewing it?

Alternatively, do you use configuration profiles within NVDA? These cause NVDA itself to behave differently in different situations, such as whether a particular application is in focus.

So to eliminate the possibility that NVDA itself is, due to changed settings, reacting differently to the site with Firefox than it does with Chrome, you could try running a temporary or portable copy of NVDA with no settings altered? (You may wish to use a NVDA setup file to create this new temporary / portable NVDA, as if you use your primary NVDA to create this it may transfer your current settings.

One other option is to ask the NVDA user support and discussions group here: https://nvda.groups.io/g/nvda as they might have more knowledge as to why NVDA cannot read the emphasis in Firefox. (This is a site that gets cited by people on the official NVDA issues page at: https://github.com/nvaccess/nvda/issues)

Trix, just some thoughts.

Does the site display with diferent fonts / styles in Chrome? I am wondering if the site itself uses different settings depending on the browser viewing it?

Alternatively, do you use configuration profiles within NVDA? These cause NVDA itself to behave differently in different situations, such as when a particular application is in focus.

So to eliminate the possibility that NVDA itself is, due to changed settings, reacting differently to the site with Firefox than it does with Chrome, you could try running a temporary or portable copy of NVDA with no settings altered? (You may wish to use a NVDA setup file to create this new temporary / portable copy, as if you use your primary NVDA to create this it may transfer your current user settings.

Trix, just some thoughts. Does the site display with diferent fonts / styles in Chrome? I am wondering if the site itself uses different settings depending on the browser viewing it?

I checked in Chrome, and NVDA said it was the same font when I checked with font name announcements enabled.

Alternatively, do you use configuration profiles within NVDA? These cause NVDA itself to behave differently in different situations, such as when a particular application is in focus.

I don't have a configuration profile for Firefox or Chrome. I only have ones for use within specific game applications, and the rest of the time I use the normal configuration one.

One other option is to ask the NVDA user support and discussions group here: https://nvda.groups.io/g/nvda as they might have more knowledge as to why NVDA cannot read the emphasis in Firefox. (This is a site that gets cited by people on the official NVDA issues page at: https://github.com/nvaccess/nvda/issues)

I'm on the NVDA mailing list linked here and asked them, but got nothing in response. It seems no matter where I go, nobody seems to know what my problem is. :(