1773042 - Can we remove the `accessibility.indicator.enabled` pref and related code?

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

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

Description

[Tom Ritter [:tjr] (OOTO until 4/30 at least)]

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.

Comment 1

[James Teh [:Jamie]]

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?

Comment 2

[Eitan Isaacson [:eeejay]]

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.

Comment 3

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

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

Comment 4

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

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.

Comment 5

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

Attachment: Bug 1773042 - Remove the accessibility indicator. r=Gijs,eeejay

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.

Comment 6

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

Attachment: Bug 1773042 - Remove the `accessibility.indicator.enabled` pref and related code. r=Gijs,eeejay

Comment 7

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/ae2819af66b2
Remove the accessibility indicator. r=eeejay,Gijs

Comment 8

[Marian-Vasile Laza]

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