906407 - Dropping the Javascript toggle from Options/Content is causing difficulties for screen reader users who frequently need to toggle the use of JS.

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Settings UI, defect)

Description

[Len Burns]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:23.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/23.0 (Beta/Release)
Build ID: 20130814063812

Steps to reproduce:

I went to Options/Content under which in the past I have been able to enable/disable JS.  


Actual results:

The checkbox I have used in the past to enable/disable JS has been removed from Options/Content


Expected results:

What occurs is correct behavior for this release, but is problematic. Those of us who use screen readers often need to disable buggy Javascript in order to prevent page reloads and other bad site behaviors.

Comment 1

[Len Burns]

Since I know this was changed to prevent user caused accidents, might it be possible to add an option accessed bia About:Config that could expose the JS toggle in options when intentionally enabled by a knowledgeable user?

Comment 2

[Loic]

(In reply to Len Burns from comment #1)
> Since I know this was changed to prevent user caused accidents, might it be
> possible to add an option accessed bia About:Config that could expose the JS
> toggle in options when intentionally enabled by a knowledgeable user?

It exists for ages: about:config > javascript.enabled

In addition, you can find on AMO many add-ons that add a button to disable JS on the fly: QuickJava, NoScript, JS Switch (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/js-switch/) etc.

Comment 3

[Nicolas Barbulesco]

(In reply to Len Burns from comment #1)

> Since I know this was changed to prevent user caused accidents, might it be
> possible to add an option accessed bia About:Config that could expose the JS
> toggle in options when intentionally enabled by a knowledgeable user?

This would be nice. I would like even more a switch always at hand, at the bottom right for example.

Comment 4

[Nicolas Barbulesco]

(In reply to Loic from comment #2)

> > Since I know this was changed to prevent user caused accidents, might it be
> > possible to add an option accessed bia About:Config that could expose the JS
> > toggle in options when intentionally enabled by a knowledgeable user?
> 
> It exists for ages: about:config > javascript.enabled

No. What Len asks is an option to bring an easily-accessible toggle for JavaScript.

Comment 5

[Loic]

It has been removed because some users unchecked this option without knowing what they're doing and it broke Firefox and their user experience (the web is full of JS).

Some add-ons do what you're requesting with a button to place where you want and to click to disable/enable JS on the fly, check JS Switch e.g.

Comment 6

[Nicolas Barbulesco]

(In reply to Loic from comment #5)

> Some add-ons do what you're requesting with a button to place where you want
> and to click to disable/enable JS on the fly, check JS Switch e.g.

Too bad we would need an add-on for that. What (stable) add-on ? JS Switch is in chinese, and is in version 0.2.10.

Comment 7

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/quickjs is another option.

Comment 8

[Len Burns]

Two things:
I perhaps failed to state clearly that I was aware of the ability to toggle JS through the use of About:Config, but this is clumsy when I use this functionality so frequently.
Regarding the addons, I also investigated this possibility and discovered that they do not play nice with either of 3 screen readers. This is why I opened the request here.

Comment 9

[Nicolas Barbulesco]

(In reply to :Gavin Sharp (use [e-mail] for email) from comment #7)

> https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/quickjs is another option.

Thank you, Gavin. This looks much nicer, for a workaround.