1964124 - Accessibility: Smart Tab Groups opt-in section has an AI sprinkles image that lacks textual alternative

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, defect, P3)

Description

[❌ Anna Yeddi [:ayeddi] ❌ On leave until 2027-01-04]

Attachment: the AI sprinkles image (icon) is marked as decorative for the Suggest more tabs for group button on Manage tab group panel

Steps to reproduce:

1. browser.tabs.groups.smart.enabled set to false in about:config
2. Have a screen reader running
3. Open Firefox Nightly and open at least one tab
4. Open the context menu for the tab and activate “Add a Tab to a new group”
5. Observe the “Suggest more tabs for group” button in the Manage Tab Group panel - note the AI sprinkles icon and how it is announced by the screen reader
6. Navigate to the opt-in panel by pressing "Continue" button (use Space key while the bug 1960295 is open).
7. Review the panel heading, including its AI sprinkles icon, and how it is announced by a screen reader

Expected results:

• The AI sprinkles icon is exposed as an informative image in both locations
  • Screen reader announces the AI involvement into the process, equally as the on-screen icon is signaling this to a sighted user, i.e. “Suggest more of my tabs using AI” or “Suggest more of my tabs with AI”

Actual results:

• In the Manage Tab Group panel, the icon is marked role="presentation" and the AI sprinkles icon is not indicated in any way
• In the opt-in panel heading, the icon’s alt is the localization ID, so the screen reader says tab-group-suggestion-optin-title, image
  • Users of assistive technology miss the fact that AI is providing the suggestion and/or involved in the process in any way, while the sighted neurotypical users would be communicated this via the AI sprinkles icon.

Recommendation:

• Mark the icon as a meaningful image by adding a proper alt, for example alt="With AI, " or alt="(AI) ", or similar so the labels become “With AI, Suggest more of my tabs” or similar
  • See W3C WAI Tutorial on non-decorative images: https://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/images/informative/

Comment 1

[❌ Anna Yeddi [:ayeddi] ❌ On leave until 2027-01-04]

Attachment: the AI sprinkles image (icon) is announced as "tab-group-suggestion-optin-title, image" while the DOM inspector shows this is the "alt" attribute valule for the icon within the Suggest more of my tabs

Comment 2

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco]]

The severity field is not set for this bug.
:dwalker, could you have a look please?

For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.

Comment 3

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco]]

The severity field is not set for this bug.
:nsharpley, could you have a look please?

For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.

Comment 4

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco]]

The severity field for this bug is set to S3. However, the accessibility severity is higher, .
:nsharpley, could you consider increasing the severity?

For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.

Comment 5

[Nikki Sharpley (:nikkis) (she/her)]

Stephen, since this is tab groups related, passing to you to decide on severity .

Comment 6

[Stephen Thompson [:sthompson]]

I'll accept as S2. Will talk to content about the best way to message this and whether there's consistent messaging about AI-related features in the browser.