Upgrade StorageZotero 7.0: Keyboard can't access Locate item functionality
I'm running Zotero 7.0 on Windows 10 and have found an accessibility issue.
User scenario (fictitious to illustrate the issue).
"I use a screen reader so rely on the keyboard to access all the Zotero functionality.
I have Zotero open to a collection of 100 journal articles. The focus is on a journal article in a collection's item list. I would like to activate the 'Locate item' functionality so my browser will open a window that shows how I can get it through my library.
In Zotero 6, I was able to do that. I would press F6 to move the focus to the toolbar's new collection button and then I would press tab until I got to the Locate button menu. I'd open the button menu and press the down key to get to the Library Lookup option.
However, in Zotero 7, I can't do do that task. The Locate button menu has moved to an different part of the interface. And there's no key commands to move the focus to that region. I've tried pressing tab, up/down/left/right, F6, and looked for shortcut keys in the Edit Menu, then Advanced. But I can't find anyway of getting there."
For sighted users, the locate button in Zotero 7.0 is on the far right with an icon that has a circle with an arrow in it.
Technical reference:
WCAG 2.0 success criteria 2.1.1
https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/keyboard
User scenario (fictitious to illustrate the issue).
"I use a screen reader so rely on the keyboard to access all the Zotero functionality.
I have Zotero open to a collection of 100 journal articles. The focus is on a journal article in a collection's item list. I would like to activate the 'Locate item' functionality so my browser will open a window that shows how I can get it through my library.
In Zotero 6, I was able to do that. I would press F6 to move the focus to the toolbar's new collection button and then I would press tab until I got to the Locate button menu. I'd open the button menu and press the down key to get to the Library Lookup option.
However, in Zotero 7, I can't do do that task. The Locate button menu has moved to an different part of the interface. And there's no key commands to move the focus to that region. I've tried pressing tab, up/down/left/right, F6, and looked for shortcut keys in the Edit Menu, then Advanced. But I can't find anyway of getting there."
For sighted users, the locate button in Zotero 7.0 is on the far right with an icon that has a circle with an arrow in it.
Technical reference:
WCAG 2.0 success criteria 2.1.1
https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/keyboard
(We greatly appreciate reports like these, but you really don't need to write this much, cite the WCAG entry, etc. Obviously this function should be accessible via the keyboard, and we could've told you we were working on it from your thread title.)
The side navigation bar is now accessible via the keyboard after the item pane — you can Tab to one of the item pane section headers, use Down-Arrow to move down to the last header, Tab to the sidenav, and then use Down-Arrow to move to the Locate button. This is obviously a bit tedious, so we're going to look into adding a shortcut key to focus the sidenav in a future update.
However, I am not sure this set of instructions is helpful to most of us.
"you can Tab to one of the item pane section headers,". Until very recently, I would not have understood what you meant. Probably the area where it says "Info", "Abstract" and so forth. I have only discovered that this is some kind of keyboard navigable menu or something, I don't actually know what it is, because NVDA will just say "section". I have checked, and apparently it has the role "section" assigned to it. However, this is not a standard role, like tree view or list view, button or whatever. If I hear NVDA announce any of the standard roles, I also know how to interact with the element, for example cursor up and down if it is a list. If something just tells me it is a section, I have no idea how I am expected to interact with it. So I only discovered this week, having used Zotero 7 for several month, that this section list or whatever it is can be navigated pressing cursor up and down and items can be opened and closed by pressing cursor right or left. Not sure, is it a tree view? However, I am not able to get to the last item just by pressing cursor down, I have to go cursor down a few times, then press tab, so I get on the last item and from there I can find the locate button that is now navigable by keyboard.
I think for now, it is easier to look for the item in the library, then press ctrl+shift+l and then shift+tab 5 times. and cursor down once.
And I do hope you can assign a shortcut to this button. :)
And it would also be good if in general, you could use standard roles for screen elements, so we hear their familiar names and know how to interact with them.
Thank you.
The "locate" button is located in the navigation sidebar that follows the item pane. When you have one of the collapsible section headers (e.g. "Info") focused and you repeatedly press arrow down, you'll reach the last collapsible section (e.g. "Related" for a regular item). You do then need to Tab out of that last section to get to the navigation sidebar. In it, there is a list of tabs that can be used to switch between the modes of the item pane (currently only applicable when the reader is opened), followed by the locate button. You can use arrow up / down to navigate between them.
The navigation sidebar is at the very end of the tab order, so to reach it from the items list, you have to either tab through the item pane OR shift-tab to move focus back through the interface to have the focus wrap around and land on the navigation sidebar. As you discovered, using the ctrl+shift+l shortcut to move focus to the collections list, followed by 6 Shift-Tab, followed by arrow down does seem like the fastest way to reach the locate button right now from the items list.
Depending on your workflow, you may also hide the item pane completely by unchecking the View -> Layout -> Item Pane menu checkbox. Then, Tab from the items list will immediately land on the navigation sidebar and arrow down will focus the locate button. But you will then need to check back View -> Layout -> Item Pane menu checkbox to be able to navigate and interact with item pane again.
Hope this adds some context! And there will be more improvements to simplify moving focus between main parts of the interface.
I also second the call for a shortcut key and I second the call for attention being focused on using standard roles for screen elements. There's some oddities in that area of the interface. Visually, there are some control types that require using a mouse. They are info, abstract, attachments, notes, libraries and collections, tags, and related control types. However, these can't be accessed with the keyboard alone. With NVDA, I heard "tab control. Item Details tab selected 1 of 1".
Thank you.
That sidenav is a fairly complex component design-wise. The Info, Abstract, etc. control types you are referring to are buttons whose purpose is to visually scroll to the respective section in the item pane (the pane that follows the items table where you can edit metadata, tags and etc). So, in the context of just keyboard navigation, they don't have any effect, and could be excluded from tabindex.
However, if you navigate to the sidenav in the reader, you will notice that besides the "Locate" button and this "Item details" tab, there is also a "Notes" tab. Clicking on it will change the item pane from displaying information about that item to displaying a list of notes to have a quicker way to access them while reading a document. In order to go back from displaying the list of notes to displaying the information about the item (Info, Abstract, etc.), one needs to click any of the Info, Abstract, etc. controls in the sidenav.
Since each individual control in the sidenav does not have any effect besides scrolling but they have to be accessible to switch back from the notes list to item info, they are grouped together under the "Item Details" tab.
So technically, "Item Details" is a tab control switching between the notes list and item info, when a reader is opened. When reader is not opened, that tab control has only one tab, which does end up being a bit confusing.
Hope this provides some more context. Given all this, if you have any suggestions on how to improve this setup, please feel free to share.
There are sighted people who rely on the keyboard and may want those buttons to scroll too.
And if the intent is make a more enjoyable user experience for sighted mouse users by making the buttons move the pane's into visual view, then shouldn't the buttons also be like skips links which move the system focus into those areas of the pane?