1628476 - Add a "press tab to highlight each item on a web page" checkbox preference UI

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Keyboard Navigation, enhancement)

Description

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

The macOS System pref for "Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls" is unchecked by default, meaning Mac only allows tabbing between text fields and pop-up menus by default. Firefox (mostly) respects this preference and so excludes links when navigating web content in Firefox with the Tab key.

This default is not great for people trying to use web pages with the keyboard only. To get your tab key to move though all interactive controls in web pages, including links, you have to go to System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts and check the box for "Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls". Firefox must be restarted to pick up changes to this pref (ugh!). Most keyboard users don't know about this System pref and think Firefox's behavior is simply broken.

In Safari there is an off by default pref that overrides the System pref at Safari -> Safari Preferences -> Advanced -> "Press Tab to highlight each option on a web page". (When not checked, Safari can highlight additional items on web pages by holding Option when hitting the Tab key. When the preference in Safari is checked, the Option key is then reversed and used to limit highlighting to just text boxes and pop-up menus.)

Firefox should implement a similar preference to what Safari has, a checkbox that overrides the macOS System preference. Firefox should default this preference to checked so that the Tab key navigates all interactive controls on a web page. Users who wish to have the limited tabbing behavior can uncheck the Firefox preference.

A follow-up bug could be to implement Safari's Option key toggling but that should not block this bug.

Steps to reproduce:

1. With a default macOS environment, open Firefox and load a web page with links and form controls.
2. Use the tab key to navigate the web page.

Results:
Firefox only navigates between the form controls on the page.

Expected Results:
Firefox navigates all interactive controls on the page including links.

Comment 1

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

This preference would be macOS-only and probably live in the "Browsing" section of the "General" Preferences.

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 4

[James Teh [:Jamie]]

Adjusting summary to make this easier to find in searches.

Comment 8

[Morgan Reschenberg [:morgan]]

FWIW setting accessibility.tabfocus to 4 or 7 seems to support the behaviour we're after (links and controls focusable, despite the OS setting)

Comment 9

[Morgan Reschenberg [:morgan]]

Here's a simplified test case: data:text/html,hello world<br><button>hello</button><br><a href="google.com">world</a><br><select><option>hello</option><option>world</option></select>

Comment 10

[Morgan Reschenberg [:morgan]]

Attachment: Bug 1628476: Add keyboard navigation pref to allow focus mode changes on macOS r?Jamie

Comment 11

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/88c664a821cb
Add keyboard navigation pref to allow focus mode changes on macOS r=Jamie,fluent-reviewers,settings-reviewers,flod,mconley

Comment 12

[Cristian Tuns]

Backed out for causing multiple bc failures.

• Backout link
• Push with failures
  Multiple failure logs: https://treeherder.mozilla.org/logviewer?job_id=422730101&repo=autoland , https://treeherder.mozilla.org/logviewer?job_id=422729771&repo=autoland etc. please open the push with failures link.

Comment 13

[Morgan Reschenberg [:morgan]]

https://treeherder.mozilla.org/jobs?repo=try&resultStatus=testfailed%2Cbusted%2Cexception%2Cretry%2Cusercancel%2Crunning%2Cpending%2Crunnable&revision=1fac3f4bc53c8fa0a090d19ae0ddb960132f2709

Comment 14

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/9082cd99a3e6
Add keyboard navigation pref to allow focus mode changes on macOS r=Jamie,fluent-reviewers,settings-reviewers,flod,mconley

Comment 15

[Sandor Molnar[:smolnar]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/9082cd99a3e6

Comment 16

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

Should we add this to the Fx117 relnotes? Please add the relnote-firefox? nomination if yes!

Comment 17

[Morgan Reschenberg [:morgan]]

Release Note Request (optional, but appreciated)
[Why is this notable]: macOS users now have the ability to control their focus settings in firefox independent of their system focus settings -- the system setting is difficult to find and understand, and we hope this pref is easier/more visibile to users. this also opens the door to standardizing focus behaviour across operating systems, see folliow up bug about defaulting this to "on"
[Affects Firefox for Android]: No
[Suggested wording]: macOS users can now control the tabability of controls and links via about:preferences
[Links (documentation, blog post, etc)]:

Comment 18

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

Added to the Fx117 relnotes.