1822048 - Fix reporting of interactive buttons associated with message list items

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, defect)

Description

[Peter Vágner]

This is a follow up to bug 1813492.
Testing with thunderbird 112.0a1 20230312

Steps to reproduce

• Open Thunderbird and use tab / shift+tab or F6 / shift+F6 to focus the message list
• Navigate up and down using the arrow keys and notice how changing the selection fires focus events so assistive tools such as screen readers can report the focused item in the list of messages.
• The columns that are reported for each message include:
  • Message not starred with the word button
  • Attachments - word button is reported for every message no matter if the message has some attachments or not
  • Read status - word button is reported for every message no matter if the message is read or not
  • From nothing is being reported if the column is displayed
  • To and corespondents are not reported when displayed
  • Date or Received is not reported when displayed

Actual results

It appears to me that only those columns are reported as a part of the message list item accessible name that have some kind of interactive button accompanied alongside them. Some buttons are not clearly labelled e.g. Attachments and Read status.

Expected

I understand on a technical level the issue is now solved however we do really need to polish the user experience and make the presentation to screen reader users also respect the configuration of visible columns along with their order. Additionally the buttons for adding the star, flagging / unflagging as spam, toggling read status are not focusable here. Thus exposing them as buttons is not appropriate. The word button should not be there.
To make it clear we need all the displayed columns reported and we don't like these presented as buttons.

Comment 1

[Peter Vágner]

Testing with thunderbird 113.0a1 20230324 this is partially addressed.
Now almost all the columns are read except of the read status.
Unwanted word button is still present.

Comment 2

[Peter Vágner]

Ah disregard my previous comment. It looks as I have missunderstood latest fixes.

All the columns are now reported. including starred, spam, status.
However the buttons that are changing spam, star, read / unread are also reported. I think these should not be reported at all as we can't interact with these. We will either use menu items, keyboard shortcuts and similar.

Also is there a way to reorder columns by using the keyboard or should I file a new issue for that?

Comment 3

[Peter Vágner]

I've discovered When sortable column headers are focused it's possible to move these left or right by pressing alt+left or alt+right.
Thank you.

Comment 4

[Peter Vágner]

Hello,
I know this issue is rather confusing but I think it might be very easy to fix.
Each list item has some interactive buttons used to toggle the star, used to mark message as read or unread and button to mark message as spam or not. These buttons are not and should not be keyboard focusable. However these are presented as a part of the accessible name. I am suggesting hiding these from presentation e.g. using aria-hidden on these.
I understand working on it needs time but I'd like to make sure it's understood.

Thanks and greetings

Peter

Comment 5

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Attachment: Bug 1822048 - Fix reporting of interactive buttons associated with message list items. r=#thunderbird-front-end-reviewers

Add aria-hidden=true to the thread pane buttons that are not keyboard focusable.

Comment 6

[Geoff Lankow (:darktrojan)]

This doesn't apply. Something missing?

Comment 7

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/99c9f3cae1a9
Fix reporting of interactive buttons associated with message list items. r=aleca

Comment 8

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Comment on attachment 9333567 [details]
Bug 1822048 - Fix reporting of interactive buttons associated with message list items. r=#thunderbird-front-end-reviewers

[Triage Comment]
Approved for beta

Comment 9

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Thunderbird 114.0b6:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-beta/rev/57ec4b814f81