Open Bug 1777805 Opened 2 years ago Updated 10 months ago

Status bar reading with NVDA fails if "Spaces Toolbar" is shown

Categories

(Thunderbird :: Disability Access, defect, P3)

Product:
Thunderbird
Component:
Disability Access
Version:
Thunderbird 102
Type:
defect

Tracking

(Accessibility Severity:s2, thunderbird_esr102 wontfix, thunderbird_esr115 affected, thunderbird121 affected)

Project Flags:
Accessibility Severity s2
Tracking Flags:
Tracking Status
thunderbird_esr102 --- wontfix
thunderbird_esr115 --- affected
thunderbird121 --- affected

People

(Reporter: k.kolev1985, Unassigned)

References

(Blocks 2 open bugs, Regression)

Details

(Keywords: access, regression, triaged)

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Launch the NVDA screen reader.
  2. Launch Thunderbird 102.
  3. From the menu "View" -> "Toolbars", make sure that the status bar and the "Spaces Toolbar" are shown.
  4. Execute NVDA's command for reading the status bar (NVDA+End in desktop NVDA layout and NVDA+Shift+End for laptop NVDA layout).

Actual results:

NVDA reports "No information in the status bar", even though the status bar is visible and there is text content in it.

Expected results:

NVDA should read the content from the status bar.

Blocks: tb102found
Keywords: access
See Also: → 1777184

(In reply to Kostadin Kolev from comment #0)
Steps to reproduce:
3. From the menu "View" -> "Toolbars", make sure that the status bar and the "Spaces Toolbar" are shown.

If the "Spaces Toolbar" is hidden, can you not reproduce this? What does NVDA say in that case?

I would find it surprising if this only happens when the "Spaces Toolbar" is shown. If anything, I would expect it to be the other way around because when the spaces toolbar is hidden, a button gets added to the status bar.

I can't reproduce this with Orca on Daily, so it might be an NVDA specific issue.

Flags: needinfo?(k.kolev1985)

When the "Spaces" toolbar is hidden, when executing NVDA's command to read the status bar, it reports the following: "Show Spaces Toolbar", followed by the text in the status bar.

My copy of Thunderbird is in bulgarian, but just in case, I switched it to english, - the result was the same - NVDA says "No information in the status bar" when the "Spaces" toolbar" is shown.

Flags: needinfo?(k.kolev1985)

I've tested this with NVDA - confirming exactly as described on 102.1.0 (64-bit), Win10. My NVDA has CapsLock as NVDA key.
For testing, it doesn't matter if there's text on left side of status bar, because both before and after the patch of Bug 1777184 Unread and Total counts are inside the status bar and should always be read.

  • If Spaces Toolbar is shown, NVDA key + End reports "No information in the status bar" (bug on 102.1.0).
  • If Spaces Toolbar is hidden, NVDA key + End reports all elements of status bar starting from Show Spaces Toolbar Button.

On Daily 105.0a1 (2022-08-01) (64-bit), NVDA key + End always reports "No information in the status bar", regardless of Spaces Toolbar shown or hidden (worse bug on Daily).

Works on 91.11.0 (32-bit), Win10 -> regression.

Severity: -- → S4
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Ever confirmed: true
Priority: -- → P4

Alice, could you kindly find the regression ranges per comment 3?

Flags: needinfo?(alice0775)
Keywords: regression, regressionwindow-wanted
Blocks: 1780944

Henry, per comment 5 (regression window) this was first regressed by bug 1665511, but some other bug (maybe bug 1777184?) made it even worse on Daily - now even with Spaces Toolbar hidden, status bar reports nothing on NVDA.

Flags: needinfo?(henry)

Looking through the patch, I can't see any change to the status bar that would obviously cause a problem.

This works fine with Orca, and bug 1777184 improved the situation on Orca. So it does seem NVDA specific and would likely require some insight from their end. It is not clear to me what counts as the "status bar" on NVDA. On Orca it seems that role="status" is sufficient, but NVDA might be more restrictive and the introduction of the spaces toolbar (https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/58db526a877f6be23f1d2028375d041ac76f97bc) and the reduction of the status area (bug 1777184) somehow break the conditions. Or it could be that there is some other element with the same "status" role that is empty but takes higher priority.

Flags: needinfo?(henry)

With the release of v102.1.1, NVDA does always report that there is no information in the status bar, no matter if the "Spaces" toolbar is shown or hidden. Can this be fixed? Thanks in advance!

(In reply to Kostadin Kolev from comment #8)

With the release of v102.1.1, NVDA does always report that there is no information in the status bar, no matter if the "Spaces" toolbar is shown or hidden. Can this be fixed? Thanks in advance!

Kostadin, please inform NVDA of the details in comment 7.

Kostadin,
Does this still reproduce for you when using version 115?

Flags: needinfo?(k.kolev1985)
Whiteboard: [closeme 2023-10-11]

Wayne,
Yes, it is still reproducible with Thunderbird 115.
Now the behavior is the same as described in my comment #8 from 2022-08-07.

Flags: needinfo?(k.kolev1985)

I need to look at the current behavior.

Flags: needinfo?(elizabeth)

I've just tested this with Thunderbird 115.4.1 and Windows 11. Using the keyboard and NVDA, I am able to navigate to the Status bar.

There is currently less information in the Status bar than in previous versions of Thunderbird. But you should still hear "Status Bar" when navigating to the Status Bar.

For my system, my status bar has information about invitations. I hear "Status Bar" and then "Invitations 38 Link."

What I do see on my end is that the Status Bar has information that is not keyboard navigable, including the following I hear with mouse "You are currently online" and "Today Pane, Show Today Pane."

What information are you used to hearing in the Status Bar that is no longer available?

Severity: S4 → S3
Accessibility Severity: --- → s2
Flags: needinfo?(elizabeth)
Priority: P4 → P3
See Also: → 1861568

How are you able to navigate to the status bar?
Do you mean that you can press NVDA's status bar reading command (NVDA+END in desktop layout) and NVDA reads you the text in the status bar?
If I press NVDA+END, NVDA says "No information in the status bar", no matter if the "Spaces" toolbar is shown or hidden.

(In reply to Kostadin Kolev from comment #14)

How are you able to navigate to the status bar?
Do you mean that you can press NVDA's status bar reading command (NVDA+END in desktop layout) and NVDA reads you the text in the status bar?
If I press NVDA+END, NVDA says "No information in the status bar", no matter if the "Spaces" toolbar is shown or hidden.

Hi.

I use the Tab key to get to the Status bar.

So to clarify: NVDA+END does not read the status bar information in Thunderbird 115. That shortcut does not work on 115 and 121 (current trunk).

status-thunderbird121: --- → affected
status-thunderbird_esr102: --- → wontfix
status-thunderbird_esr115: --- → affected
Keywords: triaged
Whiteboard: [closeme 2023-10-11]
You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.