Screen Reader Accessibility issues

Support
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Hello! I am a sighted admin over at APH Hive Discussion Board - Hive Discussion Board. We have a number of people using JAWS, NVDA, and Voice over accessing the site and having problems. Some users report that the loss of focus is a regression. I am posting the below message from one of our participants.

There are two major accessibility issues affecting screen reader users when navigating threads on the Hive discussion board:

  1. Infinite Scroll and Delayed Post Loading: The platform relies on infinite scroll to load additional posts. When navigating by heading, posts do not load quickly enough, resulting in long delays and making it difficult to read through a thread efficiently.

  2. Unexpected Focus Loss and Page Jumping: At times, focus is lost, and the page automatically jumps back to the top. This forces users to manually scroll back down and wait for posts to reload, disrupting the reading experience and significantly increasing navigation time.

Impact: These issues create a frustrating and inefficient experience for screen reader users, making it difficult to follow or participate in extended discussions on the platform.

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Thanks for reporting this. As of yesterday we’ve merged an update that is intended to make post navigation via heading more reliable. We’ve ensured consistent headings are available for every post, and have added headings with live regions that will announce when additional posts are being loaded.

This update is currently live on meta.discourse.org, as well as your site on our hosting (and any other Discourse sites that update going forward).

Let us know if encounter any more issues with this!

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