1584220 - Transfer between the main add-ons list and an add-on details page and back is not announced to screen readers

Status: ASSIGNED

(Toolkit :: Add-ons Manager, defect, P2)

Description

[Marco Zehe (:MarcoZ)]

The Problem

After the fix for bug 1567600, one issue remaining is that when bringing up an, or returning to the main add-ons page from an add-on details page, this is not announced to screen readers.

STR (with the NVDA screen reader on Windows):

1. Open Firefox and go to about:addons.
2. Tab to an add-on and press Enter to bring up its details.
   • Result: The new page is not announced via NVDA.
3. Now, press Alt+LeftArrow, or shift+Tab a few times to the Back button and press Space to activate.
   • Result: This page transition is also not announced to screen readers. NVDA remains silent.

Analysis

This is typical for single-page applications (SPA) where there is no full page load, but only parts of a document are being replaced by other bits, and the history manipulated so that the address bar reflects the new "page".

Proposed solution

The solution can be one of several suggested ones, as shown in this user study by GatsbyJS. In our case, I'd vote for the following behaviors:

1. Make the heading 1 that starts each add-ons details focusable via tabindex="0", and after this "page" loads, set focus to it programmatically. That way, the reading position is defined at the start, and the user can read through the add-on description. If we were to put focus to the tabs instead, the description would be skipped, and users would have to go backwards to read it.
2. When returning from such a details page, re-focus the link or button that called the details page, like the link to that add-on, or the menu button if the dropdown menu had been used. That way, users can continue the add-ons from the start. Right now, because there is no defined focusable item to start from, even when bringing up the fifth add-on in the list, the user is thrown back to the top of the list.

Comment 1

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The priority flag is not set for this bug.
:jimm, could you have a look please?

For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.

Comment 2

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

Updating the Accessibility Team's impact assessment to conform with the new triage guidelines. See https://wiki.mozilla.org/Accessibility/Triage for descriptions of these whiteboard flags.

Comment 3

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The severity field for this bug is set to S3. However, the accessibility severity is higher, [access-s2].
:mixedpuppy, could you consider increasing the severity?

For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.

Comment 4

[Bernard Igiri]

Attachment: Bug 1584220 - Announce transition between add-ons list and an add-on details r=mstriemer!,ayeddi!

Added auto focusing of plugin title when Addons plugin is expanded.

Comment 5

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The bug assignee is inactive on Bugzilla, and this bug has severity 'S2'.
:rpl, could you have a look please?

For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.

Comment 6

[Luca Greco [:rpl] [:luca] [:lgreco]]

Hi Mark,
do you know who could be continuing the work on the attached revision?

Comment 7

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The bug assignee is inactive on Bugzilla, and this bug has severity 'S2'.
:zombie, could you have a look please?

For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.

Comment 8

[Anna Yeddi [:ayeddi]]

Attachment: Bug 1584220 - Manage focus for the about:addons card view changes. r=Jamie

This change allows keyboard-only users to navigate the about:addons Extensions page more efficiently and for screen reader users to learn that the view was, in fact, changed when they navigate between the list and detail views.

When navigating from the about:addons > Extensions list to detail view of an installed extension, the focus is now placed on the Back button (since this is the first focusable element on the updated view) and, when returning to the list view, the focus is restored (and placed to the link of the last opened extension).