[MU4 Issue] Screen readers may read "not selected" when navigating instrument list

[MarcSabatella]

Describe the bug Blind users navigating the instrument list (available instruments within a family) hear "not selected", which is confusing to them

To Reproduce Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Enable screen reader (NVDA, JAWS, Narrator, VoiceOver, or Orca)
2. Create a new score
3. Select "Choose instruments"
4. Select Woodwinds
5. Press Tab to move to the the Instruments column
6. Press Down repeatedly
7. Hear error: depending on your screen reader, each instrument may report that it is "not selected"

Expected behavior The name of the instrument should be read without that additional text

• OS: Windows

Additional context I believe this happens with NVDA but not most other screen readers. It ends up causing a lot of confusion, because hearing it read "not selected" even after the instrument is actually added to the score makes people think it wasn't in fact added even though it was. I've heard this feedback from three different users.

[MarcSabatella]

@Tantacrul @shoogle I know this had been reported multiple times before, but I'm not finding a relevant GitHub issue, so I'm opening this new one.

[Tantacrul]

I guess the screen reader should be saying something like 'Add violin (solo)', 'add violins (section)', etc. as you scroll through potential instruments.

@shoogle - I'll pop this on both of us for a design.

[MarcSabatella]

In designing that, you might also want to look at the screen reader feedback while navigating the third column. Right now it reads the names of the instruments in your score, but doesn't (Orca, anyhow) read anything to let you know if you've selected the instrument you are currently on. You need to press Enter to select before you can delete with the Delete key, but this isn't obvious, nor is it obvious if the instrument is in fact selected, nor is it obvious if the Delete actually worked. The move buttons also require you to actually select the instrument to enable. I'm not sure if there really should be a need to explicitly select or not, or if it would make sense to enable deleting an moving right away.

Anyhow, while "Add" is indeed the only action possible in the second column - so adding that word to the screen reader feedback seems logical enough, that same approach wouldn't work in the third column, since there are multiple actions possible. So a consistent approach across both columns would be nice.

[Eism]

@MarcSabatella Please check the build from this PR https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/pull/16504

Actually not quite what you expect, but better than it is at the moment.

My PR fixes the following problems:

1. There is no distinction between selected and unselected states - the screen reader understands which item is selected. Actually, the behavior is different for Orca and NVDA. One says only not selected state, other says only selected state
2. The user does not understand which list he is in - the screen reader is now reading the name of the list

[DmitryArefiev]

@MarcSabatella Please check the build from this PR #16504

Actually not quite what you expect, but better than it is at the moment.

My PR fixes the following problems:

1. There is no distinction between selected and unselected states - the screen reader understands which item is selected. Actually, the behavior is different for Orca and NVDA. One says only not selected state, other says only selected state

2. The user does not understand which list he is in - the screen reader is now reading the name of the list

I've checked #16504 on Narrator,NVDA, VoiceOver and Orca

In 4.2 master build, "not selected" issue happens only with NVDA

About №1: #16504 fixes only part of "not selected" issue: NVDA reads "not selected" when return to selected element (see https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/issues/12852#issuecomment-1399506398)

Comparing master and PR:

https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/assets/90187801/908c1e8a-3b41-4a42-a4ec-c2c23fd3c919

About №2: Yes, after #16504, screen reader reads the name of the list (@Eism - strange, but it doesn't work in Orca on my side)

So, #16504 brings some improvements but not fixes #15521 fully

[MarcSabatella]

Thanks, definitely seems improved! I tested with orca, no "not selected" at all, which helps. It's still likely to be a generally confusing dialog to blind users I'm afraid, but at least less misleading than before.

I do wonder about the change to focus in the search box. I see this was specifically requested in https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/issues/10791, and it makes to me as a sighted user. I wonder if automatically focusing on an element in the "middle" of the dialog is really a great idea for accessibility. @Tantacrul did we get feedback on this from any blind users? Now they need to know that there are other things they can only access by navigating backwards. That's kind of unusual, although I'm sure it's not unheard of. Maybe people will generally like it because it makes search easier.

Unfortunately, see https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/issues/19052 - this would need to be fixed (presumably not hard) in order for instrument search to be viable for blind users.

[DmitryArefiev]

The same was logged for Instrument panel #19927

And also that happens in Parts dialog

[jmwmusic]

I wonder if some of these dialogues with less standard navigation (usual expectation for most screen readers is to use Tab and land on individual action buttons) where it could be assisted with hints spoken after the item. e.g. in an instrument list after the instrument name could it say "press space to select" and then when you press the space "selected - press delete to remove instrument, use up/down arrows to move" or whatever the action is. As long as this extra wordage is after the key thing being listened for, in this case the instrument name it won't slow a screen reader down moving ahead quickly on the list. I think overall the issue most screen users are having in many areas is not knowing things are there as they get jumped over when using Tab or as Marc pointed out we don't know they are selected and realise we have to select before other options, which also may not be obvious are there. so just a thought that it might be easier in many instances to add hints rather than redesign?