[Bug]: Screen reader users cannot select composer suggestions
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- Dominant language
- TypeScript
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Description
The composer suggestion pickers are not usable with a screen reader: I cannot identify and select the intended skill, file, or slash command. This blocks access to those existing composer features.
Before submitting
- I searched existing issues and did not find a duplicate.
- I included enough detail to reproduce or investigate the problem.
Area
apps/web
Steps to reproduce
- Use the web client with NVDA on Windows and focus the message editor.
- Type
$to choose a skill,@followed by part of a file name to choose a workspace file, or/to choose a command. - Try to find and select the intended suggestion using the screen reader and keyboard.
Expected behavior
I can hear which suggestion is highlighted, read its name and description, navigate the available results, and select the intended item while staying in the editor. Filtering, empty results, and dismissal should leave me with an understandable state.
Actual behavior
The picker opens and its visual highlight moves, but the screen reader does not provide the information needed to identify and choose the highlighted result. Keyboard handlers for arrows and selection already exist; the missing accessible connection between the focused editor, the list, and its highlighted option makes that selection flow unusable with a screen reader.
The original source audit identified this gap in the command, skill, and file suggestion menus. It also found that the editor lacks a stable accessible name.
A secondary problem emerged while testing the fix: after inserting a skill, Left read "space" and then "blank" when crossing its chip. The fix gives that chip a spoken identity too. This was a follow-up finding, not the original reason for the report.
Impact
Major degradation or frequent failure: screen reader users cannot use the composer suggestion pickers to choose skills, files, and commands.
Version or commit
761d4bac1c
Environment
Windows, Chrome, NVDA. The desktop client shares the web composer; the separate native mobile composer is outside this report.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Begin in apps/web by tracing the composer editor and the skill, file, and command suggestion pickers, then inspect how keyboard focus and the highlighted option are exposed to screen readers. Done means NVDA users can identify, navigate, filter, select, and dismiss suggestions in the editor, and inserted skill chips have a spoken identity.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- typescript
- Domain
- accessibility, frontend, web-dev
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Active
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 55/100