New commits view: Focus moves wrongly, making navigation with screen readers difficult

[brunoprietog]

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Using NVDA on Windows, go to a repository, for example Rails. Go to the commits history.

Move through the commits using 4 and shift + 4, because the title of each commit is a level 4 header. This is the simplest and most intuitive way every screen reader user tries to use when using browse mode.

When browsing between commits, you will notice that when browsing to a commit that belongs to a previous day, the focus goes to the first commit of the day, instead of going to the previous commit that was expected. Worse, NVDA turns into focus mode instead of browse mode. This makes navigating between commits too annoying. It used to be much easier, you could simply move with the letter I through each item in the list that represented a commit.

Also, every time you browse over a button, when you press the down arrow, it reads the same button text again, making navigation much more inefficient than before. It's being a big setback for me this change.

[Bryan-Webifi-dev]

When navigating through commit history in a GitHub repository using NVDA (a screen reader), the focus behavior is inconsistent and confusing.

• Specific Problems:
  1. Unexpected Focus Shift: Moving to a commit that belongs to a previous day unexpectedly shifts the focus to the first commit of that day, instead of the previous commit.
  2. Mode Switching: NVDA switches from browse mode to focus mode involuntarily, complicating navigation.
  3. Button Reading Redundancy: Browsing over a button and pressing the down arrow causes NVDA to reread the button text, leading to inefficient navigation.

Impact:

• User Experience Degradation: This issue significantly hinders the ability of visually impaired users to efficiently navigate commit histories, a key aspect of using GitHub.
• Accessibility Setback: The described behavior is a regression from previous experiences, where navigation was more intuitive and efficient.

Proposed Solution:

1. Bug Reporting to GitHub:

   • Direct Report: Report this issue to GitHub through their official support or issue tracking channels. Providing specific details like the repository, screen reader version, and steps to reproduce the issue will be crucial.
   • Community Support: Engage with GitHub's community forums to see if other users have encountered similar issues and if any workarounds exist.

2. Seeking NVDA Community Input:

   • Community Forums: Share this issue on NVDA community platforms to seek advice or solutions from other NVDA users.
   • Possible Workaround: There might be NVDA-specific settings or shortcuts that could mitigate the issue.

3. Alternative Navigation Methods:

   • Keyboard Shortcuts: Explore other keyboard shortcuts or navigation methods that might offer a more consistent experience.
   • Updated NVDA Version: Ensure that the latest version of NVDA is being used, as updates often include bug fixes and improvements.

4. Advocacy for Accessibility Improvements:

   • Raising Awareness: Use platforms like social media, blogs, or tech forums to highlight the issue and advocate for better accessibility features and testing in software development.

The navigation issues encountered with NVDA in GitHub's commits view highlight a significant accessibility concern. Reporting this issue to both GitHub and the NVDA community, along with seeking alternative navigation methods, are immediate steps to address the problem. Long-term, continuous advocacy for accessibility in software development is essential to ensure such issues are prioritized and resolved.

[ghostinhershell]

Hi @brunoprietog,

Thanks so much for reaching out and including as much information as you did. I've submitted this feedback over to the Accessibility team so that they can review this. If you have any other details you would like to share, related to recreating this issue, please feel free to follow up and let us know.

Thanks!

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[zersiax]

hi @Bryan-Webifi-dev , I have tried this with a screen reader and I think I know what's happening.
Before, all commits were in a single list, as you said. You could use the previous/next heading commands to go through them in a single flow.
Somewhat recently, this list has been updated so commits are grouped by date, instead.
What this means concretely is that rather than having a long list of commits, you now have several lists, one per day that has commits on it, that has its commits in chronological order. So rather than just using the next heading command, you can use heading levels to quickly navigate to a specific day, something you couldn't do before.
I hope that makes sense and clears it up somewhat for you! I'd love to hear your feedback after you give it a try.

[brunoprietog]

Why did you close this? I can still reproduce it consistently and it's tremendously annoying. You can even reproduce the problem in the repository list as well. Please can you reopen it and fix it please? Thanks

[cehfisher]

Apologies @brunoprietog - our automated system closes out issues after a certain amount of inactivity. We will reopen this issue for you, until you have a better resolution than what what provided previously.

[brunoprietog]

Thank you! This problem is becoming a constant in the new GitHub views. You are trying to change the native focus behavior of the browser, adding and removing tabindex -1 and 0, and making the container of an element focusable. That's not correct. All interactive elements should be tabbable, always, because this is not a desktop application, it's a web application. You should not be making these modifications to the tabindex attribute, nor making the commit element container focusable. Only links or buttons should be focusable and navigable using tab (or arrows if you wish, but this is optional). The main thing is not to break the expected behavior of a web site. Anyway, most screen reader users don't use arrows to navigate, we mostly use shortcuts from the screen reader itself, such as shortcuts to skip through headings.

I can help by email if it is useful, you can find it in my GH profile.