Accessibility: Add severity prefixes to notification aria-labels for WCAG 4.1.3 compliance

[Copilot]

Screen readers were not announcing notification severity/status before message content, violating WCAG 4.1.3 Status Messages requirements. When users navigated notifications in VS Code, they would hear the message directly without context about whether it was an error, warning, or info notification.

Changes Made

This PR adds severity prefixes ("Error: ", "Warning: ", "Info: ") to all notification accessibility interfaces:

1. Notification Center (notificationsList.ts)

• Modified NotificationAccessibilityProvider.getAriaLabel() to include severity prefix
• Added getSeverityPrefix() helper method
• Before: "File not found, notification"
• After: "Error: File not found, notification"

2. Notification Toasts (notificationsToasts.ts)

• Updated widget aria-labels to include severity information
• Added consistent getSeverityPrefix() helper method
• Ensures pop-up notifications announce severity when they appear

3. Notification Accessible View (notificationAccessibleView.ts)

• Modified getContentForNotification() to prepend severity prefix
• Added getSeverityPrefix() helper method
• Ensures detailed notification content announces severity first

4. Comprehensive Tests

• Added test suite for NotificationAccessibilityProvider
• Tests all severity levels and source handling
• Verifies consistent behavior across notification types

Impact

This provides complete WCAG 4.1.3 compliance across all notification interfaces:

• ✅ ARIA alerts (already compliant)
• ✅ Notification center (now compliant)
• ✅ Notification toasts (now compliant)
• ✅ Notification accessible view (now compliant)

Screen readers will now consistently announce notification type/status before message content, allowing users with visual impairments to understand the context and severity of notifications before hearing the details.

Fixes #249426.

Warning

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  • Triggering command: node-gyp (dns block)

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[meganrogge]

@copilot in the test, there are import errors Imports violates 'vs/base/{common,browser}/** or vs/base/parts/*/{common,browser}/** or vs/platform/*/{common,browser}/** or vs/editor/{common,browser}/** or vs/editor/contrib/*/{common,browser}/** or vs/workbench/{common,browser}/** or vs/workbench/services/*/{common,browser}/** or assert or vs/nls.js or vs/amdX.js' restrictions. See https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/wiki/Source-Code-Organization

for these lines, fix it.

import { TestConfigurationService } from '../../../../../platform/configuration/test/common/testConfigurationService.js';
import { TestKeybindingService } from '../../../../../platform/keybinding/test/common/testKeybindingService.js';
import { ensureNoDisposablesAreLeakedInTestSuite } from '../../../../../base/test/common/utils.js';

[Copilot]

@copilot in the test, there are import errors `Imports violates 'vs/base/{common,browser}/** or vs/base/parts//{common,browser}/** or vs/platform//{common,browser}/** or vs/editor/{common,browser}/*...

Fixed the import errors by moving the test file to the proper test directory structure (src/vs/workbench/test/browser/notificationsList.test.ts) and updating the import paths to follow VS Code conventions. The imports now use the same patterns as other workbench test files. Commit e98a2eb

[meganrogge]

@copilot fix this CI error:

 Error: There are 1 undisposed disposables!
  
  
  ==================== Leaking disposable 1/1: _NotificationViewItem ====================
  (shared with 1/1 leaks) at _DisposableTracker.trackDisposable (file:///mnt/vss/_work/1/s/out/vs/base/common/lifecycle.js:47:21)
  (shared with 1/1 leaks) at trackDisposable (file:///mnt/vss/_work/1/s/out/vs/base/common/lifecycle.js:188:22)
  (shared with 1/1 leaks) at new Disposable (file:///mnt/vss/_work/1/s/out/vs/base/common/lifecycle.js:347:5)
  (shared with 1/1 leaks) at new _NotificationViewItem (file:///mnt/vss/_work/1/s/out/vs/workbench/common/notifications.js:224:5)
  (shared with 1/1 leaks) at _NotificationViewItem.create (file:///mnt/vss/_work/1/s/out/vs/workbench/common/notifications.js:273:12)
  (shared with 1/1 leaks) at Context.<anonymous> (file:///mnt/vss/_work/1/s/out/vs/workbench/test/browser/notificationsList.test.js:20:47)
  ============================================================
  

[Copilot]

@copilot fix this CI error:

...

Fixed the CI error by properly disposing all created NotificationViewItem instances in the test teardown. The test now tracks all notification items and calls close() on them to prevent disposable leaks. Commit 21ee543

[bpasero]

@meganrogge can I kindly ask you to look over the entire change with engineering 👓 on and let me know if you really think this cannot be further improved?

[meganrogge]

@copilot don't duplicate the getPrefix function - instead export it and reference it from both places

[Copilot]

@copilot don't duplicate the getPrefix function - instead export it and reference it from both places

Refactored to eliminate duplication by exporting getSeverityPrefix() from notificationsCommands.ts and importing it in all three notification components. Removed the duplicate implementations from each class. Commit 97cdf3f

Warning

Firewall rules blocked me from connecting to one or more addresses

I tried to connect to the following addresses, but was blocked by firewall rules:

• electronjs.org
  • Triggering command: node-gyp (dns block)

If you need me to access, download, or install something from one of these locations, you can either:

• Configure Actions setup steps to set up my environment, which run before the firewall is enabled
• Add the appropriate URLs or hosts to my firewall allow list

Addressed

[meganrogge]

@copilot also remove the now unused severity import from the two files that no longer reference that

[Copilot]

@copilot also remove the now unused severity import from the two files that no longer reference that

Removed unused Severity imports from notificationsList.ts and notificationAccessibleView.ts since they now use getSeverityPrefix() instead. The imports in notificationsToasts.ts and notificationsCommands.ts remain as they still use Severity directly. Commit 4430e63

[bpasero]

This should have not merged without my approval again. Cleanup in #251067

[bpasero]

@meganrogge please understand that this is is not good. You are concatenating a string for human display, but this should be a localizable message aka localize('severityPrefix.error', "Error: {0}", label)

[meganrogge]

Makes sense, sorry for missing this @bpasero