Zoom Meetings Chat Bug

Current behaviour

When clicking on the Chat button, focus moves from the 'ContentLeftPanel' window to 'ContentRightPanel'. The cursor moves to the chat input, but focus falls on the 'Zoom Group Chat' window and this is announced to assistive technologies.

NVDA output

  • "Open Chat Panel button"
  • Spacebar
  • "Zoom Group Chat window"

JAWS output

  • "Open Chat Panel button, to activate press Spacebar"
  • Spacebar
  • "Space. Zoom Group Chat"
Zoom chat window with NVDA focus on Zoom Group Chat
Figure 1: Keyboard focus in NVDA when using Focus Highlight add-on

Expected behaviour

After pressing the Chat button, both the cursor and focus should move to the 'Input chat text' Edit control.

Zoom chat window showing NVDA focus on input field
Figure 2: Expected keyboard focus in NVDA when using Focus Highlight add-on

Expected NVDA output

  • "Open Chat Panel button"
  • Spacebar
  • "Input chat text Type message here... edit Type message here..."

Expected JAWS output

  • "Open Chat Panel button, to activate press Spacebar"
  • Spacebar
  • "Input chat text Type message here... edit Type in text"

Cause

The IsKeyboardFocusable property for the Edit control is set to False.

Accessibility properties for Zoom input chat text edit field with ISKeyboardFocusable property set to False
Figure 3: Inspection results for Zoom Meetings Chat Edit control

Solution

The IsKeyboardFocusable property should be set to True. (The default value is False)

Example - Windows Notepad

Below are the accessibility properties for the input field for the Windows Notepad application. The IsKeyboardFocusable property has been set to True.

Notepad accessibility properties for Text Editor with ISKeyboardFocusable property set to True
Figure 4: Inspection results for Windows Notepad Edit control

Current Workaround for Users

Press tab, which takes you out of the chat window to the 'Enter Full Screen' button. Then press Shift+Tab, which takes you back to the chat window and announces the input chat text edit field.

NVDA output

  • "Enter Full Screen button"
  • Shift + Tab
  • "Input chat text Type message here... edit Type message here..."

JAWS output

  • "Enter Full Screen button. To activate press Spacebar"
  • Shift + Tab
  • "Input chat text Type message here... edit Type in text"

Related Issues

  1. Users also complain that when typing in edit fields, you cannot use the arrow keys to read what you have written. I'm not sure if that is related to the keyboard focusable problem.
  2. The same keyboard focus issue arises when clicking on the Closed Caption button.
Accessibility properties of Input closed caption edit field with IsKeyboardFocusable property set to false
Figure 5: Inspection results for Zoom Meetings Closed Caption Input control

Platform Used

The issue was identified using:

  • Windows 10 Education, Version 1809, OS build 17763.973
  • JAWS 2018.1811.30 ILM
  • NVDA 2019.2.1 with Focus Highlight add-on
  • Accessibility Insights for Windows Version 1.1.1152.1