Consider adding an accessibility hint to the main text editor area

[moutend]

Current issue

Currently, the main text editor area does not seem to provide an accessibility hint for VoiceOver. When using VoiceOver, the hint can be read with the VO+Shift+H keyboard command. However, at the moment there is no hint available for the editor area.

The solution you'd like

I would like to ask whether CotEditor could add an accessibility hint to the main text editor area. I am imagining adding this hint using the .accessibilityHint() modifier in SwiftUI. One possible use of this hint would be to expose part of the status information that is already shown in the status bar, such as:

• character count
• line count
• current cursor location

These values often change while editing text. If they are available through the accessibility hint, VoiceOver users can quickly check the current editing status with VO+Shift+H without moving the VoiceOver cursor away from the text editor.
For the hint text, I imagine reusing the same localized labels that are already displayed in the status bar. I would not include values that usually do not change during normal editing, such as character encoding or line endings.
I tried a local implementation, and the diff is about 100 lines. If this direction fits CotEditor, I would be happy to prepare a pull request.

Alternatives you've considered

No response

CotEditor version

7.0.2

macOS version

Tahoe 26.4.1

Additional context

I am a visually impaired user who uses the VoiceOver screen reader. CotEditor is a very accessible and excellent text editor, and I really appreciate the work on it.

[1024jp]

@moutend Thanks for the feedback.

Sorry for the late reply. I spent some time considering how this should work.

I would like to ask whether CotEditor could add an accessibility hint to the main text editor area. I am imagining adding this hint using the .accessibilityHint() modifier in SwiftUI.

I think Accessibility Hint can be useful when applied well. However, in this case, providing only the text count information, which is just one part of the status bar’s functionality, as a hint for the entire status bar feels somewhat out of line with the general mental model.

On the other hand, as you pointed out, I understand that in the current CotEditor it takes too many steps to reach the text count in the status bar, which is inconvenient.

For those reasons, in 6b356cd, I improved how the text count information in the status bar is exposed. Instead of requiring each item to be selected and read one by one, the text count is now read as a single block of text. You still need to go one level deeper from the status bar, but I think it should be easier to access than before. What do you think?

If you’re able to build CotEditor yourself, you can also try the change currently reflected in the HEAD of the main branch.

This change is planned to be included in CotEditor 7.0.4, which I plan to submit to the App Store this weekend.

CotEditor is a very accessible and excellent text editor, and I really appreciate the work on it.

Accessibility is one of the areas the CotEditor project cares about most, so I’m very glad to hear that it’s actually useful for VoiceOver users.

Please feel free to continue sending requests or feedback anytime.

[moutend]

@1024jp Thank you for considering my proposal. After giving it some further thought, I would like to withdraw the proposal.

First of all, I also believe it is important that CotEditor’s development policy not break the mental model of a native macOS app. With that in mind, I have come to think that my proposal is less about improving the app’s accessibility and more about the usability of the VoiceOver screen reader.

For example, I think it is the app’s responsibility to fix fundamental accessibility issues, such as when focus cannot move to a button and the button cannot be pressed. At present, CotEditor’s accessibility support does not seem to be lacking, so I have decided that how this information is interpreted and communicated to the user is the responsibility of the screen reader.

In fact, the VoiceOver screen reader has a feature called Hot Spots. It can monitor and read aloud the value of any UI label on the screen. This is exactly suited to monitoring and reading aloud the status bar values in this case.

However, there is a limit to the number of UI labels that can be set as Hot Spots, and the gesture for reading Hot Spot elements is complicated. It is also common to accidentally turn off the monitoring state. In other words, regardless of whether it is comfortable to use, a way to solve the problem raised in this issue already exists.

Please feel free to close this issue. It may also be worth leaving it open for a while in case someone passing by has another good idea. I will leave the handling of this issue up to you.

On a separate note, I also built and tried the latest development version in my local environment. CotEditor is truly a wonderful editor, and I appreciate your continued work on its development.

[1024jp]

@moutend Sorry, I realized I had misunderstood the original request. I had assumed you wanted the status bar itself to use the text count information as its accessibility hint, but what you actually meant was that you wanted the editor itself to expose that as its hint.

That makes much more sense to me, so I’ve implemented it.

Sorry for making you go through the trouble of explaining it further.