1822057 - When threaded view is active message list should be presented as treeview to screen reader users

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, defect, P2)

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
• Open the menubar and verify that threaded view is active.
• 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. Pay extra attention to the items that can be expanded to see other items.

Actual results

The items are presented as list items and their nesting level is not reported. The fact they are expanded or collapsed is not reported as well.

Expected

Similarly like with the folder tree this control should behave like a treeview if threaded view is active so the screenreader users know when the item is expanded and how much in the threading hierarchy the message is nested in.

Comment 1

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

Things have improved after bug 1820604, as now we communicate the threads as group and other aria related improvements have been implemented.
How is this behaving currently on daily?

Comment 2

[Peter Vágner]

Hello,
Should this be already available in Thunderbird 113.0a1 20230329?
Is it enough to toggle View -> Threaded view or View -> Group ?
To me the items are presented the same and orca is not reporting if the item is expanded or not.
Also items are numbered for the whole list not for each expanded subtree. I am not insisting on changing the numbering as such but when proper nesting level is used, I believe we'll get that for free for example folder tree already does it.

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Peter Vágner from comment #2)

Should this be already available in Thunderbird 113.0a1 20230329?

bug 1820604 was available on nighty 20230310 already

Comment 4

[Peter Vágner]

I am testing with Thunderbird 115 Daily on linux and I can't recognize states such as expanded or collapsed on the items that can be expanded or collapsed. Are these properties being set on the items gaining the focus? Should I pay attention to something else as well?

Comment 5

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

This is worth exploring to improve it.

The new message list is presented as Listbox and we're following the Aria Listbox Patter: https://www.w3.org/WAI/ARIA/apg/patterns/listbox/.
Each threaded row is presented as group with an aria-expanded="true" if opened.
The macOS screen reader seems to handle that correctly, but NVDA on Windows doesn't.

Peter, you're using Orca on Linux, right?
We'll see if adopting the TreeView pattern improves the accessibility of this area.

Comment 6

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

Attachment: Bug 1822057 - Use the TreeView ARIA pattern for the tree view widget. r=elizabeth

Comment 7

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/a923abbbd568
Use the TreeView ARIA pattern for the tree view widget. r=elizabeth

Comment 8

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Comment on attachment 9333756 [details]
Bug 1822057 - Use the TreeView ARIA pattern for the tree view widget. r=elizabeth

[Triage Comment]
Approved for beta

Comment 9

[Daniel Darnell [:dandarnell]]

Thunderbird 114.0b4:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-beta/rev/5f2cefda39ab