1825864 - Message states "Unread" or "Read" are no longer announced by screen readers

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Disability Access, defect, P2)

Description

[Ali Savas]

When I use the arrow keys to navigate through the unread or read messages in the message list, the status "Unread" or "Read" is no longer announced to me. Messages with attachments are announced. For a blind user, it is therefore no longer possible to distinguish whether a message is read or unread.

Steps to reproduce

1. Make sure that the message list contains both unread and read messages.
2. Navigate through the message list using the arrow keys.

Result

The messages are announced, but it does not announce whether the selected message is unread or read.

Expected

The screen reader should receive the information whether a message is unread or read. Whether the user wants the status "Read" to be announced could be adjusted by the screen reader itself, or the status "Read" could be omitted altogether.

Comment 1

[Ali Savas]

Small update: "Attachments" and "Junk" are also announced.

Comment 2

[Peter Vágner]

This is somewhat tricky as I currently see it. I'm testing with Thunderbird 113.0a1 20230401 with orca on linux.
The message list has two columns:

• Status - That is reported like this: nothing when the message is unread. Read when the message is read, replied when the message has been replied to, New when the message has just been added into the list.
• Read status - this is not reported to assistive tools no matter if it's visible or not.

Technically it would be best to report the read status. and user is free to choose which column is best for them. As hearing read two times does not sound too appealing to me. Personally now I do have read status hidden because of the bug 1822048.

Comment 3

[Ali Savas]

I am currently neither told that the message is unread, nor that it is read. None of this is announced to me at all. Maybe this is a Windows problem?

Comment 4

[Peter Vágner]

Ability to report other columns besides message subject has been fixed recently as a part of the bug 1813492. Are you running new enough build to have this included?
Also are you sure you do have status column showing? I like to order it before the subject so I will get something like "read Thunderbird talk Ali Savas" reported by the screen reader. Of course this is just an example to illustrate what I mean.

Comment 5

[Ali Savas]

I am currently testing with 113.0a1 (2023-04-01) (64-bit). For testing I have set up Thunderbird from scratch. Currently, only the "Read Status" column is active. This is the default. As a screen reader user, I expect it to tell me from the start whether an email is read or unread. As a novice user, it might irritate users because previous versions of Thunderbird told the screen reader from the start whether a message was read or not. "Status" is currently not enabled for me.

Comment 6

[Peter Vágner]

Okay, so I agree reporting the read status is the way to go so the default user experience is reasonable without extensive configuration changes.

Comment 7

[Ali Savas]

This should be fixed before release of Thunderbird 115 for everyone.

Comment 8

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Attachment: Bug 1825864 - Make screen readers to announce message states "Unread" or "Read". r=elizabeth

Comment 9

[Elizabeth Mitchell]

I tested this with NVDA and Windows 11 and a little also with Narrator.

In 102, an unread message is read as "0 Message title." An unread message is read as "Unread Message title." The "0" is not what is desired. So this will be an improvement. The zero may be specific to NVDA. I was unable to use Narrator to test 102, as there are some Narrator navigation issues with the keyboard.

I tested Magnus's most recent patch. The "Read" and "Unread" are read after the message subject. I think moving this information before the subject is read will be a better way to quickly know if the message has been read or not. This will also better match 102 as well. Depending on the screen reader, read may be pronounced "reed" or "red."

There are some differences in how read status works on threads for 102 and daily. Refining that will be best addressed in separate follow up bugs so we can better identify the best flow.

Comment 10

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/21d0096c014f
Make screen readers to announce message states "Unread" or "Read". r=elizabeth

Comment 11

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Comment on attachment 9333568 [details]
Bug 1825864 - Make screen readers to announce message states "Unread" or "Read". r=elizabeth

[Triage Comment]
Approved for beta

Comment 12

[Daniel Darnell [:dandarnell]]

Thunderbird 114.0b4:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-beta/rev/8ec3323bf9f6