1802354 - [CTW][Mac] Text support inconsistencies with dynamically inserted text fields.

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Core :: Disability Access APIs, defect)

Description

[Marco Zehe (:MarcoZ)]

In apps such as Pinafore, which is an alternative web client for Mastodon, I often encounter inconsistent text support on the Mac when replying to toots or inserting images and giving them descriptions. What these text fields have in common is that they are being made visible dynamically, either by un-hiding a container, or by inserting new elements into the DOM. The problems I see are:

1. No keyboard echo when typing.
2. Text fields are being treated as if they were single-line when they are indeed multiline, e.g. textarea elements.

To reproduce:

1. Open Pinafore, log in, enter your Mastodon instance, and authorize.
2. With VoiceOver on, use the arrow up and down keys to move through toots and find one that you want to reply to. You don't have to actually send it, just starting to write it is enough.
3. Press r to reply.
4. Start typing your reply.
   • Actual: Some of the above mentioned symptoms can occur.
   • Expected: Text support should always be consistent.

Note, you may have to repeat steps 3 and 4 on various toots before you see the problem. It is intermittent, not 100% reproducible.

When I talked to @Jamie, he mentioned that text support on Mac is not fully CTW compatible yet, so this may be a symptom of that. I don't see the same problem on Windows, there it always works consistently. So this problem is Mac specific.

Comment 1

[James Teh [:Jamie]]

Marco, one thing to keep an eye out for on Windows is whether selection (e.g. with shift+arrows) ever stops reporting correctly in this situation. I see that occasionally (not in Pinafore yet, but I haven't been using it long) and I'm wondering whether the two things are linked. I think Mac is a lot less tolerant of broken selection events than Windows is.

Comment 2

[Eitan Isaacson [:eeejay]]

I'm having a hard time reproducing this. after pressing r i get key echos and words spoken after space. Marco, can you try this in tomorrow's nightly? There will be a new implementation afloat that may or may not address this. If you can find a reliably reproducible case that would be really appreciated!

Comment 3

[Marco Zehe (:MarcoZ)]

Well, the bug seems to have morphed somewhat.. Or the bugs I see now are actually more severe than just with dynamically inserted fields. The symptoms I now see are, like in this comment field I write in now:

1. keyboard echo isn't working at all, even when shifting focus away and back into the field several times.
2. When moving to the position past the last character of the text currently in the field, the very first letter of the text is spoken. Likewise, if I downarrow to the last line, and again so the cursor moves to the very end of the field past the last character, VoiceOver repeats the top line of the text field.

Interestingly, character and word navigation, as well as backspacing to delete characters, always results in the expected speech output.

It also sometimes seems to make a difference if I interact with the text field first or if I don't. Sometimes, keyboard echo miraculously starts working after a while and some tinkering. But often it does not. It really appears as if sometimes the text support simply is incomplete. I'm sorry I don't know how to describe it better.

This is with the latest Nightly build and VoiceOver on Ventura.

Comment 4

[Eitan Isaacson [:eeejay]]

Ok, thanks. Good to know. This is a new implementation so we get a refreshing set of bugs. Let's keep tabs on it here.

Comment 5

[Marco Zehe (:MarcoZ)]

I have filed bug 1827557 for the mis-reading of the last line, character, and word in text fields.

As for the keyboard echo bug, this is rather strange. It does most often not work, but sometimes, like when I entered that bug just now, it started working in the middle of typing. So I don't know what to make of that one. But the other problem has clear STR, so I filed it as a separate bug and nominated it for blocking M8.

Comment 6

[Marco Zehe (:MarcoZ)]

All the bugs reported in comment #3 have been fixed by bug 1827557. I also no longer see problems with dynamically inserted text fields. Closing this as WORKSFORME.