1422910 - Accessibility gaps: old extensions can't run after 56, replacement extensions can't run before 57+

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Toolkit :: Add-ons Manager, defect)

Description

[MarjaE]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.12; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/52.0
Build ID: 20171107091003

Steps to reproduce:

I am strobe-sensitive and use a number of animation-blocking tools. Do to the switch from xul to webextension, I'm using 52 esr until there are adequate replacements for these tools.


Actual results:

I've checked to see whether there are webextension-compatible replacements.

(a) there's no indication of which extensions are xul and which are webextension; it's hard to check dozens of extensions (b) there's no way to install some of the replacement versions on 52 esr (c) due to search problems in addons.mozilla.org, there's no adequate way to find replacement tools for discontinued extensions.

Some examples:

(I don't know if older versions of "Open in Reader Mode" use xul or webextension, but the only current version on addons.mozilla.org requires 58+.)

(I think Superstop has a replacement, but it requires 55+, so I still can't test it in 52 esr.)

(I know Configuration Mania doesn't work on 57+ and can't see any sign of any replacement. Nor QuickJava, nor it's alternative Prefbar, nor Kill Button, nor No Small Text (not an animation blocker, but definitely an accessibility tool), nor No Redirect (some sites flash or strobe because they auto-redirect to themselves, and keep reloading themselves), nor Refresh Blocker (some sites flash or strobe due to frequent refreshes).)


Expected results:

It should be possible to (a) identify all incompatible extensions while using 52 esr (b) replace and test them while using 52 esr, and then (c) safely switch to 57+, without risking migraines, vomiting, and/or seizures due to inadequate animation-blocking.

Switching to 57+ without adequate animation-blocking tools won't make it easy to use, or easy to set up animation-blocking tools.

(Unfortunately, support.mozilla.org has an animated top bar. addons.mozilla.org seems to be accessible.)

Comment 1

[MarjaE]

The same basic principles apply to other accessibility issues where the absence of accessibility tools can make it harder to use Firefox and/or can hurt users.

Comment 2

[YF (Yang)]

(In reply to MarjaE from comment #0)
> User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.12; rv:52.0)
> Gecko/20100101 Firefox/52.0
> Build ID: 20171107091003
> 
> Steps to reproduce:
> 
> I am strobe-sensitive and use a number of animation-blocking tools. Do to
> the switch from xul to webextension, I'm using 52 esr until there are
> adequate replacements for these tools.
> 
> 
> Actual results:
> 
> I've checked to see whether there are webextension-compatible replacements.
> 
> (a) there's no indication of which extensions are xul and which are
> webextension; it's hard to check dozens of extensions (b) there's no way to
> install some of the replacement versions on 52 esr (c) due to search
> problems in addons.mozilla.org, there's no adequate way to find replacement
> tools for discontinued extensions.

Firefox 56 has LEGACY markup for add-ons, but ESR 52 does not.

[Tracking Requested - why for this release]:
An add-ons migration guide to ESR?

Comment 3

[Andy McKay]

Unfortunately at this stage there's not much we can do about changing Firefox 52. 

There seems to be a request for some add-ons APIs in this bug as well. I'm not familiar with all these APIs, but I imagine some can be solved with toggling some prefs in about:config. I don't know if dbolter (cc'd) can help with some of those.

Comment 4

[MarjaE]

Even if I used 56 instead of 52 esr, I wouldn't be able to test tools which rely on 58+.