1835530 - "About" dialog is not readable or very cumbersome for screen readers

Status: ASSIGNED

(Thunderbird :: Disability Access, defect, P2)

Description

[Ali Savas]

For example, if I want to know which version of Thunderbird I am currently using, I have to navigate in the "About" dialog of Thunderbird with the object navigation to find out the version. In previous versions up to 102, at least, the current version was announced as soon as the "About" dialog appeared.

Steps to reproduce

• In Thunderbird Daily, for example, go to "Help" and then to "About Daily".
• Wait a second or two to hear if the screen reader announces the current version number.
• Use the TAB key to navigate through the dialog box.

Result

After invoking the "About Daily" dialog, the screen reader does not automatically announce which version of Thunderbird is currently in use. Navigating through the dialog box with TAB also does not bring success.

Expected

The version number should be announced automatically by the screen reader, as in previous Thunderbird versions (up to 102.X). It would be better if the version information could be made focusable by keyboard.

Workaround

To find out which version is currently running, the object navigation of the respective screen reader must be used. Unfortunately, this is not intuitive for inexperienced users.

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Ali, does this still reproduce with 115.0b5?

Comment 2

[Ali Savas]

Please excuse me for replying now, I was on vacation and did not have access to Bugzilla.

I can still reproduce this problem with Thunderbird Daily 116.0a1 (2023-06-30) (64-bit).

Comment 3

[Elizabeth Mitchell]

I initially approached this by looking into quick ways to adjust what is read by screen readers, but there was not an initial quick fix.

Today, I ran a mozregression to find out when the code changed. Before we could hear the version number when the about dialog opened. At some point, we were no longer able to hear the version number. The change happened on daily between March 21 and March 22, 2023. Mozregression results are below.

Pushlog for build

The most likely cause is changes in bug 1816532. There were significant changes to the structure of the about dialog in that commit.

Now that I have information about when the change happened, I can go about getting a fix in as soon as possible.

I noticed while doing the mozregression that between the initial breaking change and July 1, 2023, there were points where the about dialog changed to very generic information (that didn't even mention Thunderbird). Eventually, Thunderbird information was added to the about dialog, but some pieces are still missing. We need to hear version number. There was an attempt to fix the initial regression it appears, but it did not fully fix this problem. I will look into how the code has changed over time since March.

Moz Regression Results are below:

 5:28.53 INFO: Narrowed nightly regression window from [2023-03-21, 2023-03-23] (2 days) to [2023-03-21, 2023-03-22] (1 days) (~0 steps left)
 5:28.53 INFO: Got as far as we can go bisecting nightlies...
 5:28.53 INFO: Last good revision: 7b52c222b4a052804ae5ce099d8a11cacec2fba0 (2023-03-21)
 5:28.53 INFO: First bad revision: 74b53c6a18a151ed1e06c6c4867756eedf9d8d6f (2023-03-22)
 5:28.53 INFO: Pushlog:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/pushloghtml?fromchange=7b52c222b4a052804ae5ce099d8a11cacec2fba0&tochange=74b53c6a18a151ed1e06c6c4867756eedf9d8d6f

Comment 4

[Elizabeth Mitchell]

(In reply to Elizabeth Mitchell from comment #3)

I noticed while doing the mozregression that between the initial breaking change and July 1, 2023, there were points where the about dialog changed to very generic information (that didn't even mention Thunderbird). Eventually, Thunderbird information was added to the about dialog, but some pieces are still missing. We need to hear version number. There was an attempt to fix the initial regression it appears, but it did not fully fix this problem. I will look into how the code has changed over time since March.

Update: bug 1828340 updated what the screen reader reports from "Frame, Frame" to "About Thunderbird." This was an improvement over bug 1816532.

Comment 5

[Elizabeth Mitchell]

Attachment: WIP: Bug 1835530 - Improve screen reader information in about dialog.

Comment 6

[Elizabeth Mitchell]

In bug 1847078, I restored the functionality from 102. Structural changes to the dialog affected the ability for the screen reader to read aria-describedby/ aria described by.

Ali's initial request is about more than just restoring 102 functionality. The about dialog accessibility needs to be improved overall.

Ali, do you use aria-details? If details are provided, is it easy to navigate those details with the screen reader you use?

It sounds like the best approach is to make the content navigable by keyboard, especially the version number.

Is there anything else you recommend we consider to improve the experience?

Thank you!

Comment 7

[Ali Savas]

I have no option to disable or enable ARIA. You are right, the whole dialogue should be keyboard navigable.

Comment 8

[Elizabeth Mitchell]

(In reply to Ali Savas from comment #7)

I have no option to disable or enable ARIA. You are right, the whole dialogue should be keyboard navigable.

Thank you for your feedback. I will look into improving the about dialog.

Comment 9

[Elizabeth Mitchell]

I've raised the priority on this, as in some instances, the user is not able to access information about whether Thunderbird is up-to-date or access the "Restart to Upgrade Thunderbird" button.

As more users are moving from 102 to 115, it's important this work correctly to check for updates and have correct information.