1979422 - Universal Search Button menu list includes a current website with a green "+" badge that is not exposed to assistive technology

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Address Bar, defect, P2)

Description

[Anna Yeddi [:ayeddi]]

Attachment: The "This time search with:" menu opened with YouTube button having a green "+" badge (highlighed in red) but the NVDA output just states "YouTube 1 of 11"

Steps to reproduce (STR):

1. Run a screen reader, i.e. NVDA on Windows.
2. Open YouTube or any other website.
3. Navigate to the search engine selector (Universal Search Button) in the URL bar and activate it.
4. Confirm the This time search with: menu list is opened.
5. Navigate to the first option (YouTube) and observe the screen reader's announcement.

Expected results:

• The + green badge indicating the website can be added as a search engine should be explicitly included in the accessible name.
  • Example announcement: YouTube - add, 1 of 11

Actual results:

• There is no indication of the + green badge or its meaning. The control announces only the website's name (i.e. YouTube, 1 of 11), omitting critical information about the actionable + badge.

User impact:

• Screen reader users or those relying on assistive technologies (i.e. users with visual disabilities, cognitive disabilities, and others) won't have access to crucial information about the purpose of the + badge, making it unclear that selecting this item offers the ability to {maybe?} add the current website as a new search engine {but this is my assumption of the functionality too}. The omission leads to confusion and missed functionality for users who can't perceive visual indicators and for general user population too.
• Users with anxiety would likely avoid trying to activate this control to try it observe what it could do and this is likely contribute to the increased anxiety around use of the Universal Search Button menu.

Recommendation:

1. Include the + badge indication in the accessible name for these menu items, for instance by appending add or add shortcut explicitly after or before the website's name
   • Frontloading the unique information, i.e. if there could be multiple + badged items, the website name should be first, but if only one + badge is expected, the Add: should be provided first.
   • Ensure screen reader announcements clearly convey actionable meaning, consistent with visual indicators shown to sighted users.
2. Preferably, provide HTML title attribute, i.e. Add: YouTube, to indicate the meaning of this badge to mouse users on hover as well.

Comment 1

[Chris Bellini (:cbellini)]

Perhaps the right-click context menu is a workaround. It could be an improvement to announce not the "plus" but rather something like "Add YouTube".

Comment 2

[Drew Willcoxon :adw]

Triaging unassigned S2s -- Dale, would you be able to work on this or raise it with others who worked on scotch bonnet please? We really ought to fix this.