2041438 - [a11y] Error message on "Add Search Engine" popup is not announced

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Firefox :: Search, defect, P3)

Description

[Claire Joeckel]

Attachment: Screenshot 2026-05-21 130947.png

Steps to reproduce:

Impacted Section/Element

Search page

Steps to Reproduce

Open the Search page. Activate the "Add" button. In the resulting "Add Search Engine" dialog, activate the "Advanced" button. While using a screen reader, navigate to the "URL with %s in place of search term", "POST data with %s in place of search term (leave empty for GET)", and "Suggestions URL with %s in place of search term (optional)" inputs and enter information into them. Compare the visible error messages to what the screen reader announces.

User Impact

There is no indication of the error messages to a screen reader user.

WCAG 2.2 References

3.3.1 Error Identification

Recommendations

If an error message appears visually on the page, a screen reader user must be alerted to its presence. Use aria‑describedby to associate the error message to the invalid form control.

Testing Environment

Windows 11 and Mac Version 153.0a1

Assistive Technology Used

Any

Further Reference

https://webaim.org/techniques/formvalidation/#error

Severity

2-Significant

Actual results:

When the user enters invalid information or attempts to activate the "Add Engine" button, error messages appear visually on the page but are not announced by screen readers.

Expected results:

When the user enters invalid information or attempts to activate the "Add Engine" button, error messages appear visually on the page and are announced by screen readers.

Comment 1

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco]]

The Bugbug bot thinks this bug should belong to the 'Core::Disability Access APIs' component, and is moving the bug to that component. Please correct in case you think the bot is wrong.

Comment 2

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco]]

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

For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.

Comment 3

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

The add/edit search engine dialog is also used and managed outside of the settings UI, hence moving across to the search component.

Comment 4

[CalebChan]

Attachment: Bug 2041438 - screen reader reads error message on add search engine popup. r=standard8

Comment 5

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/b66b1854a46d
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/76287ba2aa8b
screen reader reads error message on add search engine popup. r=Standard8,mkennedy

Comment 6

[Serban Stanca [:SerbanS]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/76287ba2aa8b

Comment 7

[Ardelean Oana, Desktop Test Engineering [:oardelean]]

Reproducible on a 2026-08-24 Firefox Nightly build on Windows 10.

Verified as fixed on Firefox Nightly 159.0a1 and Firefox 158.0b1 on Windows 10, Ubuntu 22, macOS 13.

Tests were performed using NVDA, VoiceOver and Orca screen readers.