Accessibility Issue with TalkBack on Android: Screen Reader Exposes Background Content Behind Modal Dialogs [397294118]

Assigned

Bug

[AOSP] assigned

Status Update

No update yet.

Description

sj...@gmail.com

created issue #1

Feb 18, 2025 06:37AM

Problem Description

When interacting with web pages using TalkBack on Android devices, the screen reader continues to expose background content even when a modal dialog is correctly implemented with both role="dialog" and aria-modal="true".

Reproduction Steps

Load a web page containing a WAI-ARIA compliant modal dialog (using role="dialog" and aria-modal="true").
Activate the TalkBack accessibility service.
Navigate to the modal dialog using TalkBack navigation.
Observe that TalkBack continues to announce content from the background layer.

Expected Behavior

When a modal dialog with aria-modal="true" is active, TalkBack should:

Restrict focus to the dialog content.
Prevent navigation to background elements.
Announce appropriate dialog context information.

Observed Behavior

TalkBack fails to establish proper modal containment, allowing users to access and hear background content announcements while the dialog is active.

Tested Configurations

Android: v15
Chrome: v133
TalkBack: v15.1

Additional Information

According to the W3C ARIA Modal Dialog Pattern, "The aria-modal property introduced by ARIA 1.1 replaces aria-hidden for informing assistive technologies that content outside a dialog is inert."
Based on the A11ySupport Modal Dialog Test Case, TalkBack currently does not support this functionality.
I have tested with Google's, Apple's, and multiple popular component libraries' modal implementations, and TalkBack consistently fails to properly restrict focus and prevent access to background content.

Please investigate this issue to improve the accessibility experience for TalkBack users.

Comments

vi...@google.com <vi...@google.com> #2Feb 18, 2025 05:45PM

Assigned to vi...@google.com.

Thank you for reporting this issue. For us to further investigate this issue, please provide the following additional information:

Which Android build are you using? (e.g. AP4A.241205.013.A1)

Which device did you use to reproduce this issue?

Can you confirm if this issue is reproducible on a Pixel/Nexus device?

Are you reporting this as Developer or User?

Please provide a sample project or apk to reproduce the issue. Also mention the steps to be followed for reproducing the issue with the given sample project or apk.

Screen Record of the Issue
Please capture screen record or video of the issue using following steps:

adb shell screenrecord /sdcard/video.mp4
Subsequently use following command to pull the recorded file:
adb pull /sdcard/video.mp4
Attach the file to this issue.

Android bug report (to be captured after reproducing the issue)
For steps to capture a bug report, please refer:

https://developer.android.com/studio/debug/bug-report#bugreportdevice

Alternate method
Navigate to “Developer options”, ensure “USB debugging” is enabled, then enable “Bug report shortcut”. Capture bug report by holding the power button and selecting the “Take bug report” option.

Note: Please upload the bug report and screenshot to google drive and share the folder to android-bugreport@google.com, then share the link here.

sj...@gmail.com <sj...@gmail.com> #3Feb 19, 2025 08:21AM

Thanks for your request. We will investigate this issue and see if we can implement the behavior you've requested.

sj...@gmail.com <sj...@gmail.com> #4Feb 21, 2025 12:40PM

As an additional alternative, it should be possible to specify a label in the options for GmailApp.sendEmail().

A work-around is proposed in StackOverflow:

http://stackoverflow.com/a/18727687/1677912

vi...@google.com <vi...@google.com> #5Feb 21, 2025 08:02PM

Are there any news on adding the ability to archive and add a label to specific emails (not threads)? From a corporate shared mailbox perspective auto threading emails by subject is a serious issue (eg. we recive two emails from the same person with same subject but with different description).

Since it's available in pure mailbox view is that such a big effort to make it available also in Google Script?