Closed Bug 1773042 Opened 1 year ago Closed 10 months ago

Can we remove the `accessibility.indicator.enabled` pref and related code?

Categories

(Core :: Disability Access APIs, task, P5)

Product:
Core
Component:
Disability Access APIs
Type:
task

Tracking

()

Status:
RESOLVED FIXED
Milestone:
105 Branch
Tracking Flags:
Tracking Status
firefox105 --- fixed

People

(Reporter: tjr, Assigned: RyanVM)

References

(Blocks 2 open bugs)

Details

Attachments

(1 file, 1 obsolete file)

Bug 1773042 - Remove the accessibility indicator. r=Gijs,eeejay
48 bytes, text/x-phabricator-request
Details | Review

I'm not sure why it was disabled in Bug 1411591 (I think support articles still reference it?) but it was, and it's quite old and off by default.

I think we can remove this. Bug 1411591 is extremely unhelpful as to context 😣, but I believe the indicator ended up causing more harm than good. I believe users were confused by it, plus there are privacy concerns if a user took screenshots, etc. Eitan, do you have any further historical context to add here? Do you agree removing it makes sense?

Flags: needinfo?(eitan)
Priority: -- → P5

Yes, I think removing this makes sense. It was indeed a privacy concern and also gave people with a11y enabled the wrong-ish impression that something was wrong with their browser.

If something like this would ever be revisited, we can dig these patches up again.

Flags: needinfo?(eitan)

I guess we'd also kill/archive https://support.mozilla.org/kb/accessibility-services along the way.

Green on Try:
https://treeherder.mozilla.org/jobs?repo=try&revision=9c2b33f788c2ff78713726d7d5a91ae0f98c57ff

I also verified on Ubuntu 22.04 and Windows 10 that I didn't inadvertently break the Private Browsing indicator since it had some shared code with accessibility indicator. PB indicator behavior is unchanged vs. current Nightly.

It's been disabled by default since it first shipped and there are no plans
to ever enable it by default due to privacy and UX concerns.

Assignee: nobody → ryanvm
Status: NEW → ASSIGNED
Attachment #9288129 - Attachment is obsolete: true
Attachment #9287314 - Attachment description: Bug 1773042 - Remove the accessibility indicator. → Bug 1773042 - Remove the `accessibility.indicator.enabled` pref and related code. r=Gijs,eeejay
Attachment #9287314 - Attachment description: Bug 1773042 - Remove the `accessibility.indicator.enabled` pref and related code. r=Gijs,eeejay → Bug 1773042 - Remove the accessibility indicator. r=Gijs,eeejay
Pushed by rvandermeulen@mozilla.com:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/ae2819af66b2
Remove the accessibility indicator. r=eeejay,Gijs

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/ae2819af66b2

Status: ASSIGNED → RESOLVED
Closed: 10 months ago
status-firefox105: --- → fixed
Resolution: --- → FIXED
Target Milestone: --- → 105 Branch
Blocks: 1783025
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