1908873 - [win] Sometimes NVDA says "Alert" when hovering over tabs

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, defect, P1)

Description

[Alexandru Trif, Desktop Test Engineering [:atrif]]

Attachment: nvda_hover.gif

Found in

• 129.0.b5

Affected versions

• 130.0a1 (2024-07-18)
• 129.0b5

Tested platforms

• Affected platforms: Windows 11
• Unaffected platforms: macOS, Ubuntu

Preconditions

• tab hover enabled
• NVDA enabled

Steps to reproduce

1. Open multiple tabs with random web pages.
2. Hover over tabs.

Expected result

• The names of the tabs are read by NVDA.

Actual result

• Sometimes Alert and the name of the tabs are read by NVDA.

Regression range

• Reproducible with Firefox 124.0a1 (2024-02-02). Most likely not a regression.

Additional notes

• Attached a screen recording.

Comment 1

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

(In reply to Alexandru Trif, Desktop QA [:atrif] from comment #0)

Preconditions

• tab hover enabled
• NVDA enabled
  ..
  Regression range
• Reproducible with Firefox 124.0a1 (2024-02-02). Most likely not a regression.

Alexandru, so this bug only happens with the tab hover preview enabled (browser.tabs.hoverPreview.enabled and browser.tabs.hoverPreview.showThumbnails prefs) ? Before we added the tab preview, hovering over a tab still should a popup with the tab's title.

Also, you said the bug only happens sometimes. How often? Are there steps that make the bug more likely to happen?

Comment 2

[Alexandru Trif, Desktop Test Engineering [:atrif]]

Attachment: alert_nvda.gif

(In reply to Chris Peterson [:cpeterson] from comment #1)

Alexandru, so this bug only happens with the tab hover preview enabled (browser.tabs.hoverPreview.enabled and browser.tabs.hoverPreview.showThumbnails prefs) ? Before we added the tab preview, hovering over a tab still should a popup with the tab's title.

Hello! It seems that this issue only occurs when the tab hover preview is enabled (browser.tabs.hoverPreview.enabled). This behavior is observed regardless of whether browser.tabs.hoverPreview.showThumbnails is set to true or false.

Also, you said the bug only happens sometimes. How often? Are there steps that make the bug more likely to happen?

Yes, I see the issue occurring for every hovered tab or newly opened tab in the foreground (using middle click to open a random page). This also happens randomly on already hovered tabs, but intermittently. Please see the attached screen recording. If more information is needed please let me know.

Comment 3

[Jeremy Swinarton (PTO 2025-10-03 to 2025-10-13)]

Attachment: Bug 1908873: THP appears as tooltip to accessibility tools r?dwalker

Comment 4

[Jeremy Swinarton (PTO 2025-10-03 to 2025-10-13)]

It seems like there is two things happening here:

• NVDA is reading both the content of the tab itself and the tab hover preview, leading to some duplicate speech
• NVDA is treating the opening of the popup element as an alert. This only happens when the popup opens, not when its content is changed (this happens if you roll over tabs without leaving the tab strip). This explains why it only happens intermittently.

The simplest option is to prevent THP from appearing to accessibility tools altogether. This seems natural since all the required information needed to navigate is already contained in the tab itself, this is mostly a visual embellishment. The only thing to note is if we proceeded this way, the domain name and PIDs would be hidden from accessibility tools as well and only the bare tab name would remain. This is identical to what would be heard if THP is disabled. Does anyone have opinions about this?

Comment 5

[Alexandru Trif, Desktop Test Engineering [:atrif]]

(In reply to Jeremy Swinarton from comment #4)

It seems like there is two things happening here:

• NVDA is reading both the content of the tab itself and the tab hover preview, leading to some duplicate speech
• NVDA is treating the opening of the popup element as an alert. This only happens when the popup opens, not when its content is changed (this happens if you roll over tabs without leaving the tab strip). This explains why it only happens intermittently.

The simplest option is to prevent THP from appearing to accessibility tools altogether. This seems natural since all the required information needed to navigate is already contained in the tab itself, this is mostly a visual embellishment. The only thing to note is if we proceeded this way, the domain name and PIDs would be hidden from accessibility tools as well and only the bare tab name would remain. This is identical to what would be heard if THP is disabled. Does anyone have opinions about this?

I agree with this but I don't know if I'm the best person to answer this, or if it was a mistake. I'm redirecting this to Chris, or perhaps someone from the Ay11 team as Bogdan suggested. Thank you!

Comment 6

[Alexandru Trif, Desktop Test Engineering [:atrif]]

Sorry, missclicked on ni? request.

Comment 7

[Anna Yeddi [:ayeddi]]

(In reply to Alexandru Trif, Desktop QA [:atrif] from comment #5)

(In reply to Jeremy Swinarton from comment #4)

It seems like there is two things happening here:

• NVDA is reading both the content of the tab itself and the tab hover preview, leading to some duplicate speech
• NVDA is treating the opening of the popup element as an alert. This only happens when the popup opens, not when its content is changed (this happens if you roll over tabs without leaving the tab strip). This explains why it only happens intermittently.

The simplest option is to prevent THP from appearing to accessibility tools altogether. This seems natural since all the required information needed to navigate is already contained in the tab itself, this is mostly a visual embellishment. The only thing to note is if we proceeded this way, the domain name and PIDs would be hidden from accessibility tools as well and only the bare tab name would remain. This is identical to what would be heard if THP is disabled. Does anyone have opinions about this?

I agree with this but I don't know if I'm the best person to answer this, or if it was a mistake. I'm redirecting this to Chris, or perhaps someone from the Ay11 team as Bogdan suggested. Thank you!

Thank you for the ping, @Alexandru! And for the patch @Jeremy - I added a comment and tested locally.

Not announcing the tab preview is an expected behavior, as pointed out above, all the information besides the thumbnail is already provided for an assistive technology by the tab itself, incl. on hover with NVDA.

Comment 8

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

Jeremy and DJ recommend uplifting this fix to an Fx 129 dot release, if it grafts cleanly. It's a small code change but would be a big improvement to a11y users.

Comment 9

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/ceca0963d719
THP appears as tooltip to accessibility tools r=dwalker,accessibility-frontend-reviewers,ayeddi,tabbrowser-reviewers,Jamie

Comment 10

[Narcis Beleuzu [:NarcisB]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/ceca0963d719

Comment 11

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The patch landed in nightly and beta is affected.
:jswinarton, is this bug important enough to require an uplift?

• If yes, please nominate the patch for beta approval.
• If no, please set status-firefox130 to wontfix.

For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.

Comment 12

[Bogdan Maris, Desktop Test Engineering]

Verified that this is fixed using latest Nightly 131.0a1 on Windows 11.

Comment 13

[Jeremy Swinarton (PTO 2025-10-03 to 2025-10-13)]

Comment on attachment 9414706 [details]
Bug 1908873: THP appears as tooltip to accessibility tools r?dwalker

Beta/Release Uplift Approval Request

• User impact if declined: Hovering over tabs will cause unnecessary alerts for users using assistive technology
• Is this code covered by automated tests?: Yes
• Has the fix been verified in Nightly?: Yes
• Needs manual test from QE?: Yes
• If yes, steps to reproduce: - Tab hover enabled and NVDA installed

• Open multiple tabs with random web pages
• Hover over tab titles

Expected result: the phrase "Alert" should not be read by NVDA

• List of other uplifts needed: None
• Risk to taking this patch: Low
• Why is the change risky/not risky? (and alternatives if risky): This is a one-line code change that involves adding a "role" accessibility attribute to the panel. No other changes are necessary.
• String changes made/needed: none
• Is Android affected?: Unknown

Comment 14

[Donal Meehan [:dmeehan - PTO - Back Oct 13]]

(In reply to Chris Peterson [:cpeterson] from comment #8)

Jeremy and DJ recommend uplifting this fix to an Fx 129 dot release, if it grafts cleanly. It's a small code change but would be a big improvement to a11y users.

Jeremy, please also add a release uplift request if you want this to be considered for the Fx129 planned dot release.
Fx129 planned dot release scheduled for 2024-08-20

Comment 15

[Donal Meehan [:dmeehan - PTO - Back Oct 13]]

Comment on attachment 9414706 [details]
Bug 1908873: THP appears as tooltip to accessibility tools r?dwalker

Approved for 130.0b3

Comment 16

[Pulsebot]

https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-beta/rev/6a7ebcdf579b

Comment 17

[Bogdan Maris, Desktop Test Engineering]

(In reply to Bogdan Maris, Desktop Test Engineering from comment #12)

Verified that this is fixed using latest Nightly 131.0a1 on Windows 11.

Also verified using latest Firefox 130 beta build from Treeherder on Windows 11.

Comment 18

[Donal Meehan [:dmeehan - PTO - Back Oct 13]]

Comment on attachment 9414706 [details]
Bug 1908873: THP appears as tooltip to accessibility tools r?dwalker

Approved for 129.0.2

Comment 19

[Pulsebot]

https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-release/rev/71d78e578db5

Comment 20

[Bogdan Maris, Desktop Test Engineering]

Verified fixed in 129.0.2 using Windows 11.