1826659 - Dropdown buttons in message header can't be activated with Enter or Space key

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Disability Access, defect)

Description

[Peter Vágner]

Steps to reproduce:

This is not supernova specific as some of the buttons were introduced in earlier versions however when navigating to a dropdown buttons and trying to popup an associated context menu pressing the enter key or space key is not enough.

Either

• Open any message in a new tab or a new window and press F6 to jump to the toolbar
• Notice a reply button becomes selected.
• Use right or left arrow key to navigate and stop on the right most toolbar button which is reported as More (More actions) to screen readers.
• Now try to activate the button to bring up the context menu associated with it by pressing the enter key or the space bar key.

Or

• Launch Thunderbird, press ctrl+shift+b to open the address book.
• When the address book opens use shift+tab to navigate to the new address book dropdown button.
• Now try to activate the button to bring up the context menu associated with it by pressing the enter key or the space bar key.

Actual results:

Nothing happens focus does not change.

Expected results:

The associated menu should also open on pressing the enter key or the space bar key. Currently it's possible to popup a menu by pressing alt+down arrow but I think this is thunderbird specific and reacting to enter or space is much more natural.

Comment 1

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Attachment: Screenshot 1: Split menu button with menu opened (via Alt+Tab)

(In reply to Peter Vágner from comment #0)

Expected results:
The associated menu should also open on pressing the enter key or the space bar key. Currently it's possible to popup a menu by pressing alt+down arrow but I think this is thunderbird specific and reacting to enter or space is much more natural.

Those split menu buttons used to have two focus points, one on main action and the other one on dropdown, which seemed OK to me.
Now that it's a single focus stop, maybe Peter is right that Enter and Space should just open the submenu where the main command and the other flavors are available. Probably better than doing nothing. I don't think we can do the main action on those keypresses because the entire button including the dropdown part has focus, which is more than the main part.

Elizabeth is our accessibility expert.

Comment 2

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Also, do we read out some information to screenreaders here as to what keyboard interactions are possible?

Comment 3

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

It's about the keyboard accessible/focusable Message header buttons introduced in bug 1816784. On mac the More menu opens with arrow down but on Windows it isn't possible to open.

Comment 4

[solange]

Attachment: Bug 1826659 - Dropdown buttons in Message Header can't be activated with enter and space key. r=elizabeth,#thunderbird-reviewers

Comment 5

[solange]

I am splitting this into 2 bugs, this one will tackle the Message Header buttons and Bug 1826879 tackles the one on the address book
(In reply to Peter Vágner from comment #0)

Steps to reproduce:

This is not supernova specific as some of the buttons were introduced in earlier versions however when navigating to a dropdown buttons and trying to popup an associated context menu pressing the enter key or space key is not enough.

• Open any message in a new tab or a new window and press F6 to jump to the toolbar
• Notice a reply button becomes selected.
• Use right or left arrow key to navigate and stop on the right most toolbar button which is reported as More (More actions) to screen readers.
• Now try to activate the button to bring up the context menu associated with it by pressing the enter key or the space bar key.

Actual results:

Nothing happens focus does not change.

Expected results:

The associated menu should also open on pressing the enter key or the space bar key. Currently it's possible to popup a menu by pressing alt+down arrow but I think this is thunderbird specific and reacting to enter or space is much more natural.

Comment 6

[Elizabeth Mitchell]

(In reply to Thomas D. (:thomas8) from comment #1)

Created attachment 9327257 [details]
Screenshot 1: Split menu button with menu opened (via Alt+Tab)

(In reply to Peter Vágner from comment #0)

Expected results:
The associated menu should also open on pressing the enter key or the space bar key. Currently it's possible to popup a menu by pressing alt+down arrow but I think this is thunderbird specific and reacting to enter or space is much more natural.

Those split menu buttons used to have two focus points, one on main action and the other one on dropdown, which seemed OK to me.
Now that it's a single focus stop, maybe Peter is right that Enter and Space should just open the submenu where the main command and the other flavors are available. Probably better than doing nothing. I don't think we can do the main action on those keypresses because the entire button including the dropdown part has focus, which is more than the main part.

Elizabeth is our accessibility expert.

Adding information in bug 1826879.

Comment 7

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/f127a53cf41b
Dropdown buttons in Message Header can't be activated with enter and space key. r=elizabeth

Comment 8

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Comment on attachment 9327443 [details]
Bug 1826659 - Dropdown buttons in Message Header can't be activated with enter and space key. r=elizabeth,#thunderbird-reviewers

[Triage Comment]
Approved for beta

Comment 9

[Daniel Darnell [:dandarnell]]

Thunderbird 113.0b2:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-beta/rev/b7f00d0ee2ea