1905327 - Opening the Le Chat Mistral menu from the GenAI chat sidebar with keyboard navigation will jump at the bottom of the menu

Status: NEW

(Core :: Machine Learning, defect, P4)

Description

[Rares Doghi, Desktop QA]

Attachment: keyboardMenuJump.mp4

Found in

• Nightly 129.0a1

Affected versions

• Nightly 129.0a1 (2024-06-28)

Affected platforms

• All

Steps to reproduce

1. Reach about:preferences#experimental page.
2. Enable the AI Chat integration.
3. Select the le Chat Mistral AI provider.
4. Reach the AI chat Sidebar using Keyboard navigation.
5. Open the Chat Mistral Menu with the Space or Enter keys
6. Hit the Tab key in order to reach the older Chats.

Expected result

• The user should be able to reach the Previous chats using the Tab key after the Menu is opened.

Actual result

• Hitting Tab after opening the menu with the Space or Enter keys will jump at the bottom of the Sidebar.
  The user would have to Use Shift + Tab in order to come back up the History list.

Regression range
Not a regression.

Comment 1

[Anna Yeddi [:ayeddi]]

This is an access-S3 issue that makes it hard for users with assistive technology to operate the UI since it's not clear if there was anything, in fact, added to the sidebar or did it just crushed. While the current implementation is not fully blocking most of a11y customers from using the feature, it does require additional physical and mental load to operate for many groups of users, especially those keyboard-only users who are new to relying on the keyboard input only, for users of switch devices and other alternative inputs.

This the navigation can be continued after some reverse navigation, it is not something that is expected to happen (it is a workaround) and some less experienced users or users with cognitive disabilities may not be aware of. But the severity of this issue is lower than, for instance, a keyboard trap described in the bug 1905305, because the jump in the focus position happens on user input - on activation of the control - which is, sadly, happens on the Internet and more experienced users would likely to guess this is a case of a poor focus management vs a total crush or the older chats not being available for all users.

Following the keyboard interaction guidance on the W3C ARIA Dialog design pattern could help finding the remediation approach and, in general, improve the focus handling when there are portions of a screen changing without the full page reload. This would allow users to be aware that the change has, in fact, happened and to allow them to continue with their navigation and interaction with the chatbot instead of searching for the content across their windows.

As Ania pointed out in the comment above, this appear to be an accessibility issue on the side of the chatbot service. Firefox team will need to pass this information to the provider, but until it is resolved, we could mark this bug as stalled.