Improve keyboard shortcuts & a11y. (Still a bunch remaining)

[matrixbot]

Created by @ matthew:matrix.org.

See scrollback in #vector with Peter Vagner from Nov 1

[t3chguy]

@ndarilek that is super valuable feedback, this is my first time doing any form of screen reader accessibility work and will take it all on board

[ptman]

Shortcut discoverability is low. Please document https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web/blob/develop/docs/shortcuts.md . Or maybe we need a popup (from ^? or ^h) to show them, like gmail, grafana, ...

[pvagner]

Hello,

I have checkmarked items in my old recap comment I think are now solved.

I have noticed these improvements:

• [x] Settings is now much more accessible. Tabs are exposed as buttons, toggles are exposed as checkboxes. What needs more attention in the settings are lists of countries or list of languages. When choosing country prefix while adding phone number, list of countries is not keyboard navigable. The same is true for the list of supported Riot languages on the general tab. These are very minor points I'd say.
• [x] Left pannel is fixed so rooms expose their names and unread count and it is possible to inwoke the popup menu. What is not yet possible by using the keyboard only is expanding or collapsing categories. For example if I collapse rooms by clicking with the mouse there is no way to bring that back by using the keyboard only.
• [ ] Suggested rooms at the top don't have names and are not keyboard accessible along with the Explore button.
• [x] Popup menus are now accessible as a series of buttons. It is accessible from the keyboard and can be used with screen reader specific features. Focus management feels a bit unpredictable.
• [x] It's nice to know auto complete improvements are working with new message editor that is not enabled by default. We can enable it in Settings Under Labs.

If there are some spare resources you can dedicate to accessibility related work, I'd appreciate the following:

• Make sure navigating to all the chats and rooms is possible via keyboard on the left pannel.
• Try to give us screen reader users access to Riot exclusive features like read receipts, reactions, replies and message specific popup menu.
• Rethink focus handling in the timeline and rich composer. It is only possible to navigate out of the message editor by using screen reader specific features. Tab key is trapped for auto completion I guess.

This is really getting better and better all the time.

[ptman]

I'm unable to trigger the new keyboard shortcut dialog on a Finnish layout. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.

[t3chguy]

Its Ctrl + event.key=/ https://keycode.info/

[ptman]

@t3chguy yes, so that's Ctrl+Shift+7 on my layout and it doesn't trigger.

[t3chguy]

So keycode.info on shift+7 gives you a forward slash?

[ptman]

Correct. setxkbmap fi

[t3chguy]

Okay so this looks like it'll an issue elsewhere too where we check for "CmdOrCtrl" only so the "SHIFT" makes it fail. Will loosen it for this exact one.

[kittykat]

@pvagner would you be able to add an update on what outstanding items need to be resolved before this issue could be closed?

[pvagner]

@kittykat I have checkmarked things I think have been solved. The whole app has changed since I have documented these so perhaps it would be acceptable to close this issue and move on fixing recently pointed accessibility issues or wishes. For example if I can suggest some priorities, coming back to the issue with time line live regions where @Palid has left would be nice. Also using same technique @t3chguy has used while making room list more accessible should get applied to the room member list. Room directory is next on my radar as I think rooms can't be joined using keyboard alone.

[t3chguy]

@pvagner the member list is issue https://github.com/vector-im/element-web/issues/11285

[Palid]

https://github.com/vector-im/element-web/issues/9747 @kittykat that's the issue

[kittykat]

I'm going to close this issue now as #9747 and #11285 cover the two remaining points :+1: