Buttons with Insufficiently Descriptive Accessible Names

[Bluefish0558]

Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes/No

• VS Code Version: 1.92.2
• OS Version: 14.6.1 (23G93)

Description: Certain buttons, such as the "More actions" gear icon, have insufficiently descriptive accessible names, making it difficult for screen reader users to understand their purpose.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Navigate to the "More actions" button (gear icon) in VSCode.
2. Use a screen reader to interact with the button and notice that the accessible name is not descriptive enough.

User Impact: Screen reader users are unable to determine the purpose of these buttons due to the lack of descriptive accessible names.

Expected Behavior: Buttons should have clear and descriptive accessible names, using internal text, aria-label, or aria-labelledby. For example, the "More actions" button could be labeled as "More Actions for Inline Code Suggestions (Shift+F9)."

Actual Behavior: The button has a generic name that does not provide enough context, limiting its accessibility.

Recommendation: Ensure all buttons have descriptive and concise accessible names that provide clear context. Avoid including the word "button" in the name, as the role is already indicated by the button element.

[meganrogge]

I'm on the fence here, as the user knows the context in which their button exists since they've navigated to that area. Thoughts @isidorn ?

[isidorn]

Agreed with you @meganrogge, I would expect the user to know the context.
Having longer names will make the experience more verbose (which users always dislike).

I suggest to keep this open as a feature request to gather more user feedback.

[vs-code-engineering]

This feature request is now a candidate for our backlog. The community has 60 days to upvote the issue. If it receives 20 upvotes we will move it to our backlog. If not, we will close it. To learn more about how we handle feature requests, please see our documentation.

Happy Coding!