1738288 - Contact list items not focusable in new Address Book

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Thunderbird :: Address Book, defect)

Description

[Valentin Villenave]

In addition to bug 1738269 and bug 1738281, I found a slightly
trickier accessibility regression in the new Address Book, that’s
only triggered when using Thunderbird’s At-Spi output.
Typically, with the Orca screen reader or the Accerciser inspector.

• Open the Address Book with a couple of contacts in it.
• Hit Tab until you reach the search box, then twice more.

Looks like the focus is now in the contact card list, right?
Wrong: these cards are actually NOT focusable. If you hit
the Up and Down arrow, you will switch their “selected”
state, but not their “focused” state (as they have none).

As a result (presumably), Orca is currently getting lost in
that list box, and offers no way of browsing from one contact
to the next using the arrows only. See Orca bug #221.

Comment 1

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Mass-adding regression keyword to applicable AB bugs.

#20220530ABRegressionKeyword01

Comment 2

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

(In reply to Valentin Villenave from comment #0)

Wrong: these cards are actually NOT focusable. If you hit
the Up and Down arrow, you will switch their “selected”
state, but not their “focused” state (as they have none).

Henry, can you comment?
See also: my bug 1751986 (maybe the same?)

As a result (presumably), Orca is currently getting lost in
that list box, and offers no way of browsing from one contact
to the next using the arrows only. See Orca bug #221.

Comment 3

[Henry Wilkes (they/them) [:henry-x]]

There are problems with how the widget was implemented (see bug 1752532 where I'm fixing this) but this is not one of them. At least not any more. Whilst the individual items do not receive focus, the listbox widget still sets aria-activedescendant which acts as a pseudo-focus. Note, in bug 1752532 I'm switching to a roving tabindex, which will make the focus behaviour clearer.

Comment 4

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Valentin, does this work for you in the latest Beta? 102.0b8 (64-bit)

Comment 5

[Henry Wilkes (they/them) [:henry-x]]

This isn't an Orca-specific problem and it works fine with Orca. I think this is "invalid" because being focusable is not necessary (comment 3).