Add screen reader announcement test button to the Announcements tab #56

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opened 2026-07-16 08:20:16 -07:00 by serrebi · 1 comment

serrebi commented

2026-07-16 08:20:16 -07:00

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Add a test button to the Settings > Announcements tab (similar to the «BlindRSS notification test» button in the Notifications tab) to let users verify screen reader announcements. When clicked, the button should trigger a test announcement delivered via speech and Braille.

serrebi commented

2026-07-16 09:00:58 -07:00

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Owner

Done in v1.107.0. There's now a Test Announcement button on the Settings > Announcements tab, alongside the per-event comboboxes, mirroring "Test Notification" on the Notifications tab. It delivers via speech and Braille through the same announcer that emits real events.

Two deliberate design decisions:

It ignores the per-event modes above it. The button's job is to prove the output pipeline reaches your screen reader. If it honored a "None" setting it would do nothing — and a working-but-disabled setup would be indistinguishable from a broken one, which is the exact question the button exists to answer. So it always forces both speech and Braille.

It reports failure loudly. If nothing reaches speech or Braille (no screen reader running, accessible-output2 missing, no usable output path), it says so in a dialog. Staying silent would be indistinguishable from the failure being tested for.

Note the button label and its test message are untranslated for now — msgmerge guessed "Test Announcement" → "Объявления" ("Announcements"), which is wrong, so I cleared it rather than ship it. They fall back to English until translated.

Done in **v1.107.0**. There's now a **Test Announcement** button on the Settings > Announcements tab, alongside the per-event comboboxes, mirroring "Test Notification" on the Notifications tab. It delivers via speech and Braille through the same announcer that emits real events. Two deliberate design decisions: **It ignores the per-event modes above it.** The button's job is to prove the output pipeline reaches your screen reader. If it honored a "None" setting it would do nothing — and a working-but-disabled setup would be indistinguishable from a broken one, which is the exact question the button exists to answer. So it always forces both speech and Braille. **It reports failure loudly.** If nothing reaches speech or Braille (no screen reader running, `accessible-output2` missing, no usable output path), it says so in a dialog. Staying silent would be indistinguishable from the failure being tested for. Note the button label and its test message are untranslated for now — `msgmerge` guessed "Test Announcement" → "Объявления" ("Announcements"), which is wrong, so I cleared it rather than ship it. They fall back to English until translated.

serrebi closed this issue

2026-07-16 10:10:42 -07:00