Turn off Accessibility Service to improve Firefox performance

Mozilla Firefox is a wonderful web browser that competes effectively with Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. However, this web browser is known for being snappy after installation, but it begins to slow down and becomes a memory hog as time goes by.

This problem not only affects folks using Windows 11/10 but also Android users as well. So, with that in mind, we aim to discuss how to kick up the performance of Mozilla Firefox on both desktop and mobile platforms.

What is causing Firefox’s performance problems?

Not very long ago, an issue was detected, and right away, a Bug was opened at Bugzilla in a bid to have someone at Mozilla release a fix. Such a fix has not been released at the time of writing, which is why we’ve decided to come up with a way to ensure performance returns to normal.

Now, the bug in question suggests that the web browser’s Accessibility Service is rigged with a memory leak problem that is the primary cause of performance degradation. Such performance issues tend to happen mostly on heavy web pages, so that is something to consider.

Turn off Accessibility Service in Firefox to improve performance

The task of making sure Firefox doesn’t slow down to a pulp is relatively easy. You see, since the issue at hand has much to do with Firefox’s Accessibility Service. Because of this, the best option here, then, is to turn it off until an official fix is released.

Sadly, the folks at Mozilla removed the ability to control Firefox’s accessibility settings from the Preferences menu a long tie ago. As it stands right now, the only option is to use about:config.

Open the Firefox web browser
Navigate to about:config
Look for accessibility.force_disabled flag
Disable accessibility.force_disabled flag by setting it to 1 or false.

1] Open the Firefox web browser

The first thing you should do here is to launch Mozilla Firefox from either the desktop or your Android device.

2] Navigate to about:config

Once the browser is up and running, the next thing to do is to type about:config into the URL bar, then hit the Enter key on your keyboard. From there, click on the button that reads, Accept the Risk and Continue to enter the config area fully.

3] Look for accessibility.force_disabled

You will now want to find the correct section, which means you must use the search area via the Config menu to locate accessibility.force_disabled. After you’ve completed your search, it should appear in the results area.

4] Disable accessibility.force_disabled

To disable this feature, please click on the plus icon at the right. If it is set to true, then that means the feature is enabled. Simply double click to change it to false, which would then suggest the feature is now disabled.

If you see the value as 0 then you need to change the value of accessibility.force_disabled from 0 to 1 to disable the Accessibility Service.