[Screen Reader - Utility - PowerToys Run Window]: Narrator does not announce about the Appended controls present at suggestion list item.

[Ajesh-k]

[PowerToys Run -Utility - PowerToys Run Window]

User Experience:
If the object role, state(s), properties, boundary, name, and description are not programmatically determinable, it would be difficult for the platforms that provide Accessibility APIs, and would in turn affect the screen reader dependent users to determine the object properties.

Test Environment:
OS Version: 20221.1000
App Name: Power Toy Preview
App Version: v0.23.0
Screen Reader: Narrator

Pre-Requisite:
Define any shortcut key to open PowerToys Run
(for e.g. 'Ctrl + Shift + V')

Repro Steps:

1. Open Power Toys App
2. Launch Narrator.
3. Navigate to PowerToys Run Button present on the left side and activate it.
4. Now press "Ctrl + Shift + V" to open PowerToys Run window.
5. PowerToys Run utility window will get open.
6. Focus will land on power launcher edit field.
7. Now enter any data say 'word'. Suggestion list will get appear.
8. Now navigate to suggestion list say 'Word'
9. Observe the issue.

Actual Result:
Narrator does not announce about the Appended controls present at suggestion list item when focus navigates to complete suggestion list item.

Expected Result:
Narrator should announce the information about the Appended controls present at suggestion list item when focus is navigating to complete suggestion list.

Note:
Issue is repro with NVDA.

MAS Reference:
https://microsoft.sharepoint.com/:w:/r/teams/msenable/_layouts/15/WopiFrame.aspx?sourcedoc=%7Ba12f3779-bdf1-40c2-bbcc-0e314ea94858%7D&cid=786ba934-9116-49f8-a3e6-9a46156fd114

MAS4.2.1_powertoys Run utility_suggestion list UIA.zip

[dsrivastavv]

@Ajesh-k The appended controls are items in a ListView control and screen readers only read out selected items in List view. When the focus is set on a result(using up/down navigation), none of the appended controls are selected. This is consistent with the default behavior of the narrator for ListView control. We also reached the OSG accessibility discussion forum and they questioned if it might be enough to know that a menu exists rather than reading out the complete list of appended items. Please let us know your thoughts on this.

[Sameera2309]

This issue is still Repro. Verified in OS Version: 20241.1005, App Version: v0.25.0.

Discussed with PWD SME, ‘This issue should be fixed for better user experience as There might be a general statement on the edit field or on the first suggestion in the list like, “Press up/down arrow keys to navigate on the suggestions and press right/left arrow keys to navigate on the appended controls", so that a screen reader users will know about the controls present.’

[ghost]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has been marked as requiring author feedback but has not had any activity for 5 days. It will be closed if no further activity occurs within 5 days of this comment.

[Ajesh-k]

@somil55 This issue is still Repro. Verified in OS Version: 20257.1, App Version: v0.25.0.

Discussed with PWD SME, ‘This issue should be fixed for better user experience as There might be a general statement on the edit field or on the first suggestion in the list like, “Press up/down arrow keys to navigate on the suggestions and press right/left arrow keys to navigate on the appended controls", so that a screen reader users will know about the controls present.’

[ghost]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has been marked as requiring author feedback but has not had any activity for 5 days. It will be closed if no further activity occurs within 5 days of this comment.

[zersiax]

Screenreaders inherently only focus one element at a time. So that the buttons aren't automatically announced when the suggestion comes up is to be expected, and actually preferable.

the discovery of these options needs to be managed carefully though. " Press up and down to go through suggestions, and left and right to go through context-specific actions" or some such would be unnecessarily verbose, and would be distracting to hear over and over, either for each item, or for each invocation of PT run.
I'd argue that the way autocomplete lists work is pretty self-evident. It works very similarly to the Windows Start menu, after all, so we don't really need to go into how to navigate suggestions each time.
My suggestion would be to append " has options" to the announcement of the suggestion. Append, absolutely not prepend. This will alert the screen reader user there are options to be navigated using left/right, or tab, or what have you. We would then need to make sure that whatever key we use to go through these options is discoverable, either through a one-time tutorial message or clearly stated in the readme/helpfile/manual.
What seems more pressing though is that using either left/right currently does not read these controls. I can tab several times on a result, but no options are read by NVDA. i can use the PT Run tool as advertised without these controls, but am now curious what they actually do :)

[HasnuddinMohammed]

As the bug is impacting the screen reader dependent users, so we need to upgrade the severity. Hence closing this bug and logged new bug for further tracking.

Bug ID: 20270