# The ⊕ composer menu is not accessible by screen readers
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-composer-menu-is-not-accessible-by-screen-readers/376619
**Category:** Bug
**Tags:** composer, accessibility, screen-reader, needs-repro
**Created:** [July 30, 2025, 7:46pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-composer-menu-is-not-accessible-by-screen-readers/376619 "2025-07-30T19:46:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@dfabulich](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dfabulich)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2025, 7:46pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-composer-menu-is-not-accessible-by-screen-readers/376619/1 "2025-07-30T19:46:59Z")
# Bug 1: There’s no way to dismiss composer menus in VoiceOver
Expand the ⊕ menu in iOS VoiceOver. Now, try to dismiss the menu.
Expected: Ordinarily, you’d do that by dragging the little “grip” bar down, or tapping in the grey area to dismiss the menu.
Actual: Dragging the grip bar does nothing when iOS VoiceOver is enabled. The bar itself is marked `aria-hidden=true`, so there’s no way to target it, click on it, or act on it.
# Bug 2: No ARIA description for ⊕ or Tt button
In iOS VoiceOver, compose a new post and navigate to the ⊕ button, which contains additional tools for editing your post.
Actual: VoiceOver will announce the button as “Button. Collapsed.”
Expected: The button should have a `title` attribute or an ARIA description explaining what it is, even if it’s just, “Additional tools. Button. Collapsed.”
(I don’t even know what this menu is called… I’m using the unicode ⊕ to describe it.)
The same issue affects the `Tt` headings menu, where you can select a heading level or “paragraph.” VoiceOver announces it simply as “Button. Collapsed.” There’s no indication of what it does.
Finally, you can also reproduce this by hovering over composer buttons with a mouse. When you hover over most of the buttons, a `title` tooltip appears, explaining what it does (and suggesting a keyboard shortcut). But not so for ⊕ or `Tt`. The only way to find out what they do is to click on them and find out.
(And, when you do, you’ll get stuck in the menu, unable to leave!)
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2025, 11:34pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-composer-menu-is-not-accessible-by-screen-readers/376619/2 "2025-07-30T23:34:17Z")
Thanks for reporting Dan, I put a priority tag on this and some time in the next 4 weeks we will get to sorting this out.
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### Author:  [@j.jaffeux](https://meta.discourse.org/u/j.jaffeux)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2026, 11:57am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-composer-menu-is-not-accessible-by-screen-readers/376619/5 "2026-01-13T11:57:47Z")
> [@dfabulich](#):
>
> # Bug 1: There’s no way to dismiss composer menus in VoiceOver
>
> Expand the ⊕ menu in iOS VoiceOver. Now, try to dismiss the menu.
>
> Expected: Ordinarily, you’d do that by dragging the little “grip” bar down, or tapping in the grey area to dismiss the menu.
>
> Actual: Dragging the grip bar does nothing when iOS VoiceOver is enabled. The bar itself is marked `aria-hidden=true`, so there’s no way to target it, click on it, or act on it.
Im sorry I don’t understand this report atm, I tried it and it seemed fine to me.
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### Author:  [@awesomerobot](https://meta.discourse.org/u/awesomerobot)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2026, 3:46pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-composer-menu-is-not-accessible-by-screen-readers/376619/6 "2026-01-13T15:46:45Z")
I took a look and it’s working for me as well, maybe [A11Y: fix toolbar keyboard navigation with d-menu items by awesomerobot · Pull Request #34615 · discourse/discourse · GitHub](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/34615) or another change fixed it?