Test behavior of Talkback

[jessegreenberg]

We currently don't support Talkback (Google screen reader for Android) but we hope to in the future. We would like to know how well it behaves in general and with our sims.

We can use these two sims to test:
Gravity Force Lab: Basics

Ohm's Law

It would be helpful to at least start this over a zoom call so I can see the behavior and make sure there isn't anything glaring that would make it impossible to test.

Assigning to @KatieWoe and myself to coordinate.

[jessegreenberg]

Also assigning @ariel-phet so he is aware of this request. Would it be OK if @KatieWoe and I met in the next week or two for this?

[ariel-phet]

@jessegreenberg sounds good for you and @KatieWoe to meet

Just a note (and I am sure you are already aware), but I was informed by some non-sighted people that Talkback is pretty loathed compared to VoiceOver so I won't be surprised if it is a bit rough.

[jessegreenberg]

Thanks @ariel-phet, good to know. We had an indication that VoiceOver was much more widely used - now we know why.

@KatieWoe tested Talkback today in GFL:B and OL. @KatieWoe was testing with Device "Nye", a Galaxy Tab A Android device. Here is what we found:

• Using gestures to read through content with the cursor works great.
• You cannot tap individual elements in the sim to focus them. This is specific to PhET sims, this is possible for Talkback with other web content.
• Interactive content is not discoverable if reading setting is set to "lines" - it must be "default" or something else.
• Sliders are adjusted with volume keys once focused (this is different than VoiceOver)
• Talkback does not use DOM focus when reading with the cursor, so Talkback will have the similar problems as iOS VoiceOver doesn't support "cursor tracking" a11y-research#138. However, DOM focus is placed on an element once it is activated. So the PhET pink highlight will generally show up on elements once they are clicked. This also means that focus listeners would be called on activation which might produce unexpected results since this is so different from desktop AT.
• aria-valuetext is not working on Talkback. Instead, talkback reads the percentage of the value relative to the slider range. This is a big problem, we convey a lot of info through aria-valutetext.
• aria-live alerts are working great.
• buttons and checkboxes are working great.
• aria-pressed is working great, the "Sound" toggle button state was conveyed.
• When you first encounter a slider, the label and accessible name is read but you can't interact with it yet. You must navigate further to the input element to be able to adjust the slider.

Thanks for the help @KatieWoe - This list will help us decide whether or not to push for Talkback support in
phetsims/a11y-research#144