1825870 - Number of unread messages is no longer communicated to screen readers when a folder is selected in the folder pane

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

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

Description

[Ali Savas]

Description

Up to Thunderbird 110 the number of unread messages was still displayed in the tree view of the folders. Starting with Thunderbird 111, the number of unread messages is no longer displayed.

Steps to reproduce

1. make sure that there are unread messages in the inbox for example.
2. Navigate with TAB to the tree view with the available folders.
3. Use the arrow keys to navigate through the tree view and select the "Inbox" folder.

Result

Only "Inbox" is displayed.

Expected

You should see "Inbox (X)". X here stands for the number of unread messages.

Comment 1

[Ali Savas]

Peter vagner has confirmed to me that this is an accessibility bug. For sighted people this does not seem to be a problem. To test this, he has used ocrdesktop app to take the screenshot of the thunderbird window and he discovered that number of unread messages inside a folder is displayed on the screen alongside the folder names in the tree.

Comment 2

[Peter Vágner]

Yes I'd also like this to be added. In fact this is a regression because in Thunderbird 102 and earlier this is included.

Comment 3

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Elizabeth, I'd think that this requires something like setting an aria attribute somewhere on the folder nodes when we populate the unread bubbles. Would you agree? Hopefully not too hard?

But I imagine that number of unread messages is much more important for screen reader access than without. While others can just have a glance at the message list, doing so will probably much more complex/noisy for screen readers -> P2.

Comment 4

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Confirmed by two independent user reports.

Comment 5

[Elizabeth Mitchell]

I'll take a look and report back. I'll test 102 and compare with 113/latest to see how we can improve upon this.

Thanks for reporting this issue, Ali and Peter.

Comment 6

[Ali Savas]

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

Comment 7

[Elizabeth Mitchell]

(In reply to Ali Savas from comment #6)

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

I agree. I will look into this today.

Comment 8

[Elizabeth Mitchell]

I tested this in Windows 11 with the NVDA screen reader. In 102, the name of the folder is read, followed by the number of unread messages. In 114, the name of the folder is read, but not the number of unread messages.

Yes, this is a priority for before 115 is released to production.

Sorry for the delay last week.

Comment 9

[Elizabeth Mitchell]

(In reply to Thomas D. (:thomas8) from comment #3)

Elizabeth, I'd think that this requires something like setting an aria attribute somewhere on the folder nodes when we populate the unread bubbles. Would you agree? Hopefully not too hard?

But I imagine that number of unread messages is much more important for screen reader access than without. While others can just have a glance at the message list, doing so will probably much more complex/noisy for screen readers -> P2.

Thomas, yes, we are able to add the unread messages information. Given that it already existed in 102, it is definitely possible. I will have to look into this further for how to make this change. This is doable and very important information to have for those using screen readers.

Comment 10

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

Suggestions for this:

• We could set the aria-label on the focusable element with a structure like "Folder name, Unread: #" if we have any.
  • We will need to manually update this whenever the number of unread or messages changes.
    This will give us the flexibility of adding extra info if the user decides to those them, for example "Folder name, Unread: #, Total: #".

Comment 11

[Ali Savas]

Currently, it would be enough for me if the number of unread messages were displayed in brackets. Example "Inbox (2)". The number of messages contained in the folder could still be read in the status bar. However, I don't think these are currently displayed.

Comment 12

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

Taking this as I've implemented the message header and I can quickly tackle this.
We can show this in the message header area or via floating status panel

Comment 13

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

Attachment: Bug 1825870 - Update folder rows aria labels to reflect unread and total message count. r=darktrojan

Comment 14

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/c6e24795621f
Update folder rows aria labels to reflect unread and total message count. r=darktrojan

Comment 15

[Ali Savas]

The problem has been fixed, but there are a few side effects now:

• When I navigate the message tree, I see how many unread messages are in the respective folder, as expected. However, I get the additional message "X messages". This message, which seems to come from the notification bar or something similar, is unnecessary. I would query this, if necessary, from the status bar.
• If a message is deleted from the message list, a message is issued to the screen reader each time as to how many messages are in that list. Example: "X messages".

Also, it would be nice if the number of unread messages were displayed in parentheses. So, instead of "X Unread Messages" just "(X)". This was also the case in the previous versions.

Comment 16

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Comment on attachment 9334897 [details]
Bug 1825870 - Update folder rows aria labels to reflect unread and total message count. r=darktrojan

[Triage Comment]
Approved for beta

Comment 17

[Daniel Darnell [:dandarnell]]

Thunderbird 114.0b6:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-beta/rev/86c35651365c