Use a screen reader to operate the default Plasma applets (Set a11y lables/ descriptions/ roles)

Summary

Find out what's lacking accessible properties that makes a screen reader unusable among the default Plasma applets. The goal is to make the default Plasma applets usable by only using a screen reader like Orca.

The goal mainly focuses on plasma-desktop, plasma-workspace, and plasma-addons.

Part of: The Accessibility Goal

Tasks

Global

• pressing menu key does not open the right context menu (https://invent.kde.org/frameworks/plasma-framework/-/merge_requests/764)
• NameChanged and DescriptionChanged are not announced (qt/qt/qtbase!189 (closed) https://codereview.qt-project.org/c/qt/qtbase/+/423457)
• Orca recognizes a button menu as a plain button (https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/at-spi2-core/-/merge_requests/103)

plasma-desktop

Click to expand

• keyboardlayout
  • not able to switch layouts using keyboard (!1047 (closed))
  • the description is wrong (!1047 (closed))
  • screen reader does not read the layout name after switching layouts (qt/qt/qtbase!189 (closed))
• kicker
  • not focus-able (application dashboard only, !1058 (merged))
• kickoff
  • the Leave button is not readable (!1049 (merged))
  • section is not focus-able
• kimpanel
  • not focus-able, no accessible properties (!1048 (merged))
• minimizeall
  • same as showdesktop
• pager
• showActivityManager
  • keyboard not accessible (!1052 (merged))
• showdesktop
  • the description doesn't reflect the activated status (!1043 (merged))
• taskmanager
  • grouped task's description does not reflect the actual action (!1035 (merged)).
  • Only "push button" is read by Orca, the actual task's properties are not read (!1039 (merged))
  • progress percent number and badge count are not reported to the screen reader (!1045 (merged))
  • the mute button is not focus-able, and does not have accessible properties (!1044 (merged))
  • progress bar value is not sent to the screen reader (QTBUG-105155 !1060 (closed))
• trash
  • not focus-able, no accessible properties (!1046 (merged))
• window-list (!1054 (merged))
• margins-separator

plasma-workspace / plasma-nm / plasma-pa / bluedevil

Click to expand

• activitybar
• analog-clock
  • the description is not friendly (plasma-workspace!1947 (merged))
• batterymonitor
  • the description is not friendly (plasma-workspace!1948 (merged))
  • slider has no accessible properties (plasma-workspace!1949 (merged))
• devicenotifier
  • the description is not friendly (plasma-workspace!1951 (merged))
• icon
  • the description is invalid (plasma-workspace!1952 (merged))
• lock_logout
• mediacontroller
  • buttons have no accessible properties (plasma-workspace!1953 (merged))
• notifications
  • new notification is not read (qt/qt/qtbase!189 (closed))
  • toolbuttons do not have accessible properties (plasma-workspace!1954 (merged))
  • notification contents are not read in full representation (plasma-workspace!1954 (merged))
  • tab order is wrong
• systemtray
  • tab order is wrong, the header bar is the last item in the focus chain.
  • toolbuttons do not have accessible properties (plasma-workspace!1955 (merged))
• appmenu
  • completely unusable (plasma-workspace!1958 (merged))
  • no accessible properties in compact representation (plasma-workspace!1959 (merged))
• calendar
  • no keyboard navigation (plasma-workspace!1970 (merged))
• clipboard
  • toolbuttons do not have accessible properties (plasma-workspace!1956 (merged))
• digital-clock
  • how to read time?
  • time is not read (plasma-workspace!1968 (merged))
  • no keyboard navigation (plasma-workspace!1416 (merged))
  • sublabel is not read (plasma-workspace!1975 (merged))
• manage-inputmethod
  • not focus-able, no accessible properties (plasma-workspace!1933 (merged))
• panelspacer
• systemmonitor
  • value is not read
• plasma-nm
  • Connection name is not readable (https://invent.kde.org/frameworks/plasma-framework/-/merge_requests/560)
  • Connection details are not readable (plasma-nm!135 (merged))
  • The traffic graph is not readable (plasma-nm!135 (merged))
  • Connect/Disconnect button does not have a description that describes which connection the button refers to (plasma-nm!135 (merged))
• plasma-pa
  • mute button (plasma-pa!131 (merged))
  • context menu button (plasma-pa!131 (merged))
• bluedevil
  • details are not read (bluedevil!89 (merged))

plasma-addons

Click to expand

• activitypager
• binary-clock
• calculator
  • answer is not read after pressing = (kdeplasma-addons!205 (merged))
• colorpicker
  • color is not read (#41 (closed))
  • color menu can't be opened by pressing space (#41 (closed))
• comic
• dict
  • webengine does not support a11y
• diskquota
• fifteenPuzzle
  • keyboard navigation (kdeplasma-addons!209 (merged))
• fuzzy-clock
  • the fuzzy text is not read (kdeplasma-addons!210 (merged))
• grouping
• keyboardindicator
• kickerdash
• konsoleprofiles
• mediaframe
• nightcolor
• notes
• quicklaunch
• quickshare
• timer
• userswitcher (kdeplasma-addons!212 (merged))
• weather (kdeplasma-addons!214 (closed))
• webbrowser (kdeplasma-addons@13c547a3)
• katesessions