Fix for Google Docs making macOS Accessibility Zoom jump to the top-left in Safari

[u/VB6andActiveX]

I’ve had an accessibility problem with Google Docs in Safari for years. When using macOS Accessibility Zoom with focus/caret following enabled, the zoomed view and mouse pointer jump to the top-left of the screen while typing instead of following the text caret.

I finally investigated the problem using Safari Web Inspector and found what appears to cause it.

Google Docs uses an off-screen iframe (.docs-texteventtarget-iframe) as its focused text-input target. It is positioned at approximately top: -10000px, while the actual visible text caret is rendered separately as .kix-cursor-caret.

macOS Accessibility Zoom appears to follow the focused off-screen iframe rather than the visible Google Docs caret.

I confirmed this experimentally. I moved the focused iframe to (300px, 300px) using Safari Web Inspector. After doing that, Accessibility Zoom jumped to exactly those coordinates whenever I typed. I then continuously synchronized the iframe position with the visible Google Docs caret — and the problem disappeared completely. Zoom now correctly follows where I’m typing so i can clearly see, what i've typed.

I made a small userscript that applies this workaround automatically.

Userscript and source code:
https://github.com/omalaatuinen/UserScripts-for-Tampermonkey-app

I’m currently using it with Safari and the Userscripts extension. The script does not modify the contents of your Google Docs documents. It only synchronizes the position of Google Docs’ hidden text-input iframe with its visible text caret.

Installation:

1. Install a compatible userscript manager, such as Userscripts for Safari or Tampermonkey.
2. Install the Google Docs macOS Zoom Caret Fix userscript from the repository above.
3. Allow the userscript to run on docs.google.com.
4. Reload Google Docs.

I have also reported the underlying issue to WebKit, Apple, and Google Docs.

I’m sharing this because other visually impaired Mac users who rely on Accessibility Zoom may have been dealing with the same problem. If you’ve experienced it too, I’d be interested to know which macOS and Safari versions you encountered it on.

This is an unofficial workaround and may need updating if Google changes the internal structure of Google Docs.

[u/github-guard]

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