It's generally not ideal to change behaviour based on screen reader detection. In this case, given how disproportionately it impacts screen reader users, if it were the only path forward, we might make an exception. That said, I'd argue that modifiers alone are not a sufficient signal of user activation. That would be equivalent to treating a mouse wiggle (that isn't necessarily even in the page viewport) as user activation. The user might be holding down control because they're about to press control+t to open a new tab, control+tab to switch tabs, control+shift+escape to open the Windows Task Manager, control+escape to open the Windows Start Menu, etc. Or maybe they're holding down alt because they're about to press alt+tab to switch apps, alt+f to open the file menu, alt+d to focus the address bar, etc. Or maybe they're holding down shift because they're about to press shift+escape to open the Firefox Process Manager, shift+alt+tab to switch apps, shift+f12 to open the Accessibility Dev Tools, etc.
Bug 2020233 Comment 4 Edit History
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It's generally not ideal to change behaviour based on screen reader detection. In this case, given how disproportionately it impacts screen reader users, if it were the only path forward, we might make an exception. That said, I'd argue that modifiers alone are not a sufficient signal of user activation. That would be the keyboard equivalent to treating a mouse wiggle (that isn't necessarily even in the page viewport) as user activation. The user might be holding down control because they're about to press control+t to open a new tab, control+tab to switch tabs, control+shift+escape to open the Windows Task Manager, control+escape to open the Windows Start Menu, etc. Or maybe they're holding down alt because they're about to press alt+tab to switch apps, alt+f to open the file menu, alt+d to focus the address bar, etc. Or maybe they're holding down shift because they're about to press shift+escape to open the Firefox Process Manager, shift+alt+tab to switch apps, shift+f12 to open the Accessibility Dev Tools, etc.
It's generally not ideal to change behaviour based on screen reader detection. In this case, given how disproportionately it impacts screen reader users, if it were the only path forward, we might make an exception. That said, I'd argue that modifiers alone are not a sufficient signal of user activation. That is the keyboard equivalent to treating a mouse wiggle (that isn't necessarily even in the page viewport) as user activation. The user might be holding down control because they're about to press control+t to open a new tab, control+tab to switch tabs, control+shift+escape to open the Windows Task Manager, control+escape to open the Windows Start Menu, etc. Or maybe they're holding down alt because they're about to press alt+tab to switch apps, alt+f to open the file menu, alt+d to focus the address bar, etc. Or maybe they're holding down shift because they're about to press shift+escape to open the Firefox Process Manager, shift+alt+tab to switch apps, shift+f12 to open the Accessibility Dev Tools, etc.
It's generally not ideal to change behaviour based on screen reader detection. In this case, given how disproportionately it impacts screen reader users, if it were the only path forward, we might make an exception. That said, I'd argue that modifiers alone are not a sufficient signal of user activation. That is the keyboard equivalent to treating a mouse wiggle (that isn't necessarily even in the page viewport) as user activation. The user might be holding down control because they're about to press control+t to open a new tab, control+tab to switch tabs, control+shift+escape to open the Windows Task Manager, control+escape to open the Windows Start Menu, etc. Or maybe they're holding down alt because they're about to press alt+tab to switch apps, alt+f to open the file menu, alt+d to focus the address bar, etc. Or maybe they're holding down shift because they're about to press shift+escape to open the Firefox Process Manager, shift+alt+tab to switch apps, shift+f12 to open the Accessibility Dev Tools, etc. Not a single one of these actions indicates user activation (or even the slightest bit of interaction) with the page itself.