about:config broken with JAWS screen reader
Categories
(Firefox :: Disability Access, defect)
Tracking
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People
(Reporter: asa, Unassigned)
Details
In Firefox 76.0.1 (and perhaps since the re-write?) about:config isn't working with the JAWS screen reader. JAWS does not read any preferences after entering a filtering search - just sees an empty list box.
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Comment 1•4 years ago
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Setting as S2 severity because there's a workaround with the old about:config.
Comment 2•4 years ago
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Originally reported on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PeterBossley/status/1261473299466502144
Comment 3•4 years ago
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There's nothing in our code that would cause this table to be reported as a list box. My guess is that JAWS has special case code to treat any table on the about:config page as a list box, perhaps because the old about:config page had an interactive table (as opposed to the non-interactive table on the new page) that they wanted reported as a list box. I've contacted Vispero (the JAWS vendor) about this.
Comment 4•4 years ago
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Vispero confirmed that JAWS was special casing this and has fixed it on their side for future versions.
We could probably hack around this for older versions by reporting something other than about:config for the URL of the page via a11y APIs, but I'm not thrilled about that idea.
Asa, what are your thoughts on how important it is for us to hack around this for older versions of JAWS? On one hand, JAWS users tend to update slowly due to cost. On the other hand, the issue is on the JAWS side and about:config is a pretty rare and advanced use case.
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Comment 5•4 years ago
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about:config is advanced and for now at least there's still the older about:config at chrome://global/content/config.xhtml I don't think we should invest in a workaround.
Comment 6•4 years ago
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Okay. Closing as fixed, since this is fixed for future JAWS versions.
Thank you for working on this even though it ended up being a JAWS issue. FWIW I think folks need to keep their AT updated at this point to keep up with the frequent OS and core application and API changes, so I tend to agree that legacy versions of JAWS are less of a concern.
Description
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