Accessibility: unable to open/view automation details via the keyboard

[CityDweller]

Checklist

• [X] I have updated to the latest available Home Assistant version.
• [X] I have cleared the cache of my browser.
• [X] I have tried a different browser to see if it is related to my browser.
• [ ] I have tried reproducing the issue in safe mode to rule out problems with unsupported custom resources.

Describe the issue you are experiencing

I am a screen reader user and only navigate the UI via the keyboard.

When I go to Setting / Automatin, I am unable to open an existing automation with the enter key when I land on it in the table.

Describe the behavior you expected

I expect to be able to open/edit an existing automation when I hit the enter key after bringing focus to the entry.

Steps to reproduce the issue

1. go to Settings
2. select automation & scenes
3. to to an entry in the table via the tab or arrow keys (if using a screen reader)
4. hit enter on an entry that has focus

What version of Home Assistant Core has the issue?

2024.06

What was the last working version of Home Assistant Core?

No response

In which browser are you experiencing the issue with?

Microsoft Edge Version 125.0.2535.85

Which operating system are you using to run this browser?

Windows 11

State of relevant entities

No response

Problem-relevant frontend configuration

No response

Javascript errors shown in your browser console/inspector

No response

Additional information

No response

[steverep]

@CityDweller I am a screen reader user as well and understand the issue. However, implementing what you expect (like in Gmail for example) would get complicated quick, especially since the data table component is generic and used many places, and also transforms to something quite different on mobile. It's on my list though.

For now, I would suggest just navigating the tables in browse mode to interact with the various cells. You can use space or enter whenever you are in the row but not on another interactive role (e.g. checkbox or menu button).

[CityDweller]

Thanks Steve for the response. This use to work, I would guess before the new table style was introduced, so I'd consider this a regression.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by browse mode. I have no issue with reading the individual cells of the table, I just cannot open the automation to work on it.

[steverep]

I am referring to "browse mode" in the NVDA sense (as opposed to focus mode). In JAWS this would be the virtual cursor.

If you say it worked before, than perhaps I'm misunderstanding the issue. What screen reader are you using and could you elaborate on the steps? Specifically, what has focus and where is your virtual/browse cursor when you hit enter?

If I'm on column 2 with the automation name and hit enter with NVDA, it navigates to edit the automation as expected.

[CityDweller]

Ok, I do use JAWS and am using the Virtual Cursor.

For JAWS, I have Smart Navigation mode set to "Tables and controls" so I can use the normal arrow keys to navigate a table.

When I am in the table and my VPC is focus on the name of the automation, if I hit enter or spacebar, the state is changed to on/off.

Step by step: in the Automation view that shows the table, hit T to take you to the first row. The first row for me reads blank in column1, name in column2, and last activated in column 3. hit down arrow to go to the first automation, arrow right to get on the name column hit enter to open the automation for editing.

[steverep]

I don't have JAWS installed to test. Does it work as you'd expect without smart navigation enabled?

[CityDweller]

No, I did specifically try that as I was typing my earlier reply.

As a side note, if I go to Settings / Devices and Services and then the Devices tab--which shows another table of all my devices, I can go to the device column of a device and hit enter here. it will open the device details.

[steverep]

Okay, I was going to say it sounds like JAWS might be trying to be too smart and click the first control in the row, but I guess that's not it. The devices table working as expected for you should narrow down what is happening here, so that's helpful. I'll try to take a closer look this week sometime.

You stated you were using Edge. Can you tell me how Chrome and/or Firefox behaves for you?

[CityDweller]

Chrome is doing the same thing; I don't have Firefox installed.

[steverep]

I suspect this is just screwed up ARIA table setup. It used to be fine but I'm now finding NVDA doesn't navigate properly in other ways in many tables. I haven't changed my production home config in a while so I didn't notice until now.

[karwosts]

@steverep how do you feel about adding Edit Automation to the overflow menu?

I'm understanding that screen reader users have some way to 'click' the row using some custom function of the screen reader, but perhaps it might be nice if it could also be activated with just keyboard (in the absense of doing this total data table redesign that you proposed).

[steverep]

@steverep how do you feel about adding Edit Automation to the overflow menu?

IMO, that would just add clutter to the menu and ultimately be several more keystrokes to accomplish the most common task. Always better to make the thing that everyone uses accessible rather than adding more things that everyone would see (and thus probably 👎🏻 from a UX standpoint).

I'm understanding that screen reader users have some way to 'click' the row using some custom function of the screen reader, but perhaps it might be nice if it could also be activated with just keyboard (in the absense of doing this total data table redesign that you proposed).

It was/is already keyboard accessible. Something went wacky with the ARIA markup I think so now JAWS has this problem, and I'm noticing other problems with NVDA. The redesign I'm talking about isn't necessary to fix this - just need to figure out what went wacky in the a11y tree.

[github-actions[bot]]

There hasn't been any activity on this issue recently. Due to the high number of incoming GitHub notifications, we have to clean some of the old issues, as many of them have already been resolved with the latest updates. Please make sure to update to the latest Home Assistant version and check if that solves the issue. Let us know if that works for you by adding a comment 👍 This issue has now been marked as stale and will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[CityDweller]

Unfortunately, this is still an issue with the latest version.

[github-actions[bot]]

There hasn't been any activity on this issue recently. Due to the high number of incoming GitHub notifications, we have to clean some of the old issues, as many of them have already been resolved with the latest updates. Please make sure to update to the latest Home Assistant version and check if that solves the issue. Let us know if that works for you by adding a comment 👍 This issue has now been marked as stale and will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[CityDweller]

This is still an issue for me on Edge and Firefox.

[karwosts]

Just want to mention that I tried with NVDA and did not have any trouble opening an automation from the table with the keyboard.

• Press T for the table
• Ctrl+Alt+Down to visit a row
• Enter to open the automation detail page.

[github-actions[bot]]

There hasn't been any activity on this issue recently. Due to the high number of incoming GitHub notifications, we have to clean some of the old issues, as many of them have already been resolved with the latest updates. Please make sure to update to the latest Home Assistant version and check if that solves the issue. Let us know if that works for you by adding a comment 👍 This issue has now been marked as stale and will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.