1987295 - Accessibility Severe: No scroll sounds and broken touch focus with TalkBack on Android 15

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Core :: Disability Access APIs, defect)

Description

[elitarnyles]

Hello Firefox for Android Team,

I am reporting a set of critical accessibility issues on the latest version of Firefox for Android, which make the browser nearly unusable for visually impaired users relying on the TalkBack screen reader.

Summary of Issues:

1. No Audible Scrolling Feedback: When scrolling a webpage with a two-finger gesture, TalkBack does not produce any sound. The expected "ticking" sound that indicates content is moving is completely absent.
2. Broken "Explore by Touch" Focus: It is impossible to set the accessibility focus by dragging a finger across the screen. The focus remains stuck and does not follow the user's finger, preventing direct navigation to specific page elements. The only way to navigate is by using sequential swipe gestures (left/right), which is extremely inefficient.

User Impact:
These bugs combined create a severe regression in accessibility. The lack of scroll feedback is disorienting, and the inability to use touch exploration forces users into a slow, linear navigation model, making it incredibly difficult and frustrating to browse the web.

Environment Details:

• Device: [Wpisz tutaj model swojego telefonu, np. Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra]
• Operating System: Android 15
• UI Overlay: Samsung One UI 7.0
• Application: Firefox for Android
• App Version: 142.0.1
• Screen Reader: Samsung TalkBack
• Screen Reader Version: 15.1.01.0

Steps to Reproduce:

1. On a device with the configuration listed above, enable Samsung TalkBack.
2. Open the Firefox for Android application.
3. Navigate to any content-rich, scrollable webpage (e.g., wikipedia.org).
4. Attempt to scroll the page using a two-finger swipe up or down.
5. Attempt to find a specific element on the page by dragging one finger across the screen.

Actual Results:

• The page content scrolls visually, but there is complete silence from TalkBack (no audio cues).
• The TalkBack focus does not move to the element under the user's finger.

Expected Results:

• TalkBack should produce a series of ascending/descending audible ticks as the page is scrolled.
• The TalkBack focus should move to and announce any element the user touches while exploring the screen.

Crucial Additional Information:
This issue is specific to Firefox and its Gecko rendering engine. I have tested other browsers on the same device, and accessibility works correctly in Chromium-based browsers (like Google Chrome and Samsung Internet). In those browsers, both scroll sounds and touch exploration function as expected. This strongly indicates the bug is within Firefox for Android itself.

Thank you for your attention to this critical accessibility issue.

Comment 1

[Petru-Mugurel Lingurar [:petru]]

This seems like a core a11y issue.
@Eitan is this something you can help get prioritized with the right team?

Comment 2

[Eitan Isaacson [:eeejay]]

Did a quick test on my personal device (Pixel 9a, Android 16).

Explore by touch works as expected, but scrolling sounds are missing.

Can you provide a site that you visit where explore by touch does not work?

I'll dig deeper into this on Monday, thanks for your report.

Comment 3

[elitarnyles]

---

Hello Eitan,

Thank you for your quick reply. I'm glad you were able to confirm the issue with the missing scrolling sounds.

Regarding the "explore by touch" bug, I have a crucial observation that might help. The problem is not limited to a specific website; it appears on every single web page I visit. When I try to navigate the content by touching the screen, TalkBack fails to locate and focus on any element.

However, I've noticed that this issue only affects web content. When I'm in Firefox's menus, such as the settings or history, both the scrolling sounds and the "explore by touch" functionality work perfectly.

This seems to suggest that the bug is related to how the rendering engine processes web content and its interaction with TalkBack, rather than an issue with the browser's core application itself.

Here's a summary of my observations:

• The bug is global: It happens on all websites.
• The bug is specific to web content: It does not occur within the Firefox app interface (e.g., settings menu).
• "Explore by touch" is completely broken: I cannot get TalkBack to focus on any element on the page by touching the screen.
• Scrolling sounds are missing: Confirmed on my device as well.

My device details are as follows:

• Phone: [samsung galaksi s 25 +]
• Android version: 15
• Firefox version: [, 143.0]

I hope this additional information helps you narrow down the issue. Please let me know if there's anything else I can do to assist.

Thank you again for y
our time and hard work on this.

Comment 4

[elitarnyles]

Hello @Eitan,

Thank you for your quick reply. I'm glad you were able to confirm the issue with the missing scrolling sounds.

Regarding the "explore by touch" bug, I have a crucial observation that might help. The problem is not limited to a specific website; it appears on every single web page I visit. When I try to navigate the content by touching the screen, TalkBack fails to locate and focus on any element.

However, I've noticed that this issue only affects web content. When I'm in Firefox's menus, such as the settings or history, both the scrolling sounds and the "explore by touch" functionality work perfectly.

This seems to suggest that the bug is related to how the rendering engine processes web content and its interaction with TalkBack, rather than an issue with the browser's core application itself.

Here's a summary of my observations:

• The bug is global: It happens on all websites.
• The bug is specific to web content: It does not occur within the Firefox app interface (e.g., settings menu).
• "Explore by touch" is completely broken: I cannot get TalkBack to focus on any element on the page by touching the screen.
• Scrolling sounds are missing: Confirmed on my device as well.

My device details are as follows:

• Phone: [samsung galaksi s 25 +]
• Android version: 15
• Firefox version: [143.0]

I hope this additional information helps you narrow down the issue. Please let me know if there's anything else I can do to assist.

Thank you again for your time and hard work on this.

Comment 5

[Eitan Isaacson [:eeejay]]

Thank you for your detailed reporting, I could indeed reproduce the scrolling issue, and I have submitted a change for review that should hopefully remedy that in a future version (bug 1988618).

Please excuse me if this is something you already did, but just to make sure we are on the same page can you navigate to the following URL and test to see if explore by touch works?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_wattlebird

Comment 6

[elitarnyles]

(In reply to Eitan Isaacson [:eeejay] from comment #5)

Thank you for your detailed reporting, I could indeed reproduce the scrolling issue, and I have submitted a change for review that should hopefully remedy that in a future version (bug 1988618).

Please excuse me if this is something you already did, but just to make sure we are on the same page can you navigate to the following URL and test to see if explore by touch works?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_wattlebird

@Eitan I've verified the website's functionality and can confirm that touch exploration works correctly. However, there's still no scrolling sound effect, and touch navigation seems somewhat difficult.

Comment 7

[Eitan Isaacson [:eeejay]]

I'm glad to hear touch exploration works. Can you now give me an example of a website where it does not?

Also, if you are able to explain why the touch navigation seems difficult, especially in comparison with other browsers that would generally be helpful. Thank you!

Comment 8

[Morgan Reschenberg [:morgan]]

:eeejay do you think this is worth testing on a new build after bug 1991817 is in? I wonder if they're related.

Also, I'm not sure how scrolling sounds are implemented in talkback, but if they're related to the PlatformScrollingEvent that is fired here, they may suffer from the same issue I just corrected in bug 1991817 because the call to (ComputeScrollData)[https://searchfox.org/firefox-main/rev/16707ce1df112d9e067175ed8e16be717ab684c4/accessible/generic/DocAccessible.cpp#777-793] could still fetch an old resolution value when the scaling occurs.

Comment 9

[Eitan Isaacson [:eeejay]]

The scrolling was fixed when I introduced IsScrolling in bug bug 1988618. The patch in bug 1991817 may have fixed the explore by touch wrinkles the reporter described, but we never got any specific site to reproduce with here. So I think we can close this as works for me. The reporter can open a new bug with actual steps to reproduce with a site if they identify anything that needs to be fixed.