Reported by mdcurran on 2014-06-26 11:15
A. If you turn on numlock while in input help mode, it is impossible to exit input help mode unless you turn off numlock first. Obviously this makes sense to the advanced user, but for a beginner user, they would be under the assumption that while in input help mode they can press any key or key combinations they like, and still be able to then press NVDA+1 to exit input help mode. But if they happen to tap numlock, this will not be true.

B. Pressing numlock while in input help mode, NVDA only announces "numlock" but not its new state (on or off). Again this leads to the confusion about what the key press actually did.

C. The Windows internal key state seems to get confused if you perform the following actions:

1. Press NVDA+1 to enter input help.
2. Press numlock to turn it on.
   sighted person reports that the numlock light does not come on
3. Press numpad6 to prove that its on.
   says numlock+numpad6
4. Turn off input help (but using the extended insert key on the 6 pack as numpad insert will not work due to numlock being on).
5. Press numpad6 to prove that numlock is still on.
   says 6
6. Press numlock to turn it off.
   says numlock on
7. Press numpad6.
   says 6
   1. Press numlock again.
      says numlock off
   2. Press numpad6.
      announces the next word

In short, following those steps shows that NVDA is badly screwing up Windows' idea of numlock toggling.

The problem is even worse if you're using Mouse keys. It is impossible to turn off numlock at all while in input help once it is on.

Possible solutions:
I think the best one would be to simply block numlock from passing to the Operating System while in input help if at all possible. It is possible to assign scripts to keys requiring numlock, so I can see the argument that you may want numlock to work. But based on the above rather serious issues, I think it best that we don't worry about that usecase. Or at least remember that you can turn on numlock first and then turn on input help with extended insert if you really must do that.

Some other options:

• Allowing the user to press esape to exit input help. This would give them a fail safe way as numlock would not affect this.
• Ensuring that NVDA announces the numlock state when it changes while in input help mode. This will make it more clearer. But as shown above, the state is getting mucked up some how anyway.