send accessibility announcement events as confirmation for some state changes

src/main/assets/changelog-alpha.txt

@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 /Alpha 370 (2026-09-13)
+Accessibility announcements for collapsing/expanding comments, and voting (thanks to codeofdusk)
 Fixes for inline image preview size in landscape mode
 Improved memory usage for inline image previews
 

src/main/assets/changelog.txt

@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 119/1.27
+Accessibility announcements for collapsing/expanding comments, and voting (thanks to codeofdusk)
 Fixes for inline image preview size in landscape mode
 Improved memory usage for inline image previews
 

src/main/java/org/quantumbadger/redreader/common/General.kt

@@ -36,9 +36,12 @@ import android.view.View
 import android.view.ViewGroup
 import android.view.ViewGroup.MarginLayoutParams
 import android.view.WindowManager.BadTokenException
+import android.view.accessibility.AccessibilityEvent
 import android.widget.Toast
 import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity
 import androidx.core.net.toUri
+import androidx.core.view.AccessibilityDelegateCompat
+import androidx.core.view.ViewCompat
 import com.google.android.material.dialog.MaterialAlertDialogBuilder
 import org.quantumbadger.redreader.BuildConfig
 import org.quantumbadger.redreader.R
@@ -190,6 +193,48 @@ object General {
         }
     }
 
+    // announceForAccessibility was deprecated in Baklava, but the suggested
+    // replacements don't cover brief action confirmations:
+    // https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/425271162
+    @Suppress("DEPRECATION")
+	@JvmStatic
+	fun announceForAccessibility(view: View, textRes: Int) {
+        runOnUiThread {
+            view.announceForAccessibility(view.context.getString(textRes))
+        }
+    }
+
+    // TalkBack reads a view's raw text aloud when it changes under accessibility
+    // focus, ignoring any content description. Install this on views whose content
+    // description already covers their text; description changes still go through.
+    @JvmStatic
+	fun suppressAccessibilityTextChangeEvents(view: View) {
+        ViewCompat.setAccessibilityDelegate(view, object : AccessibilityDelegateCompat() {
+            override fun sendAccessibilityEventUnchecked(
+                host: View,
+                event: AccessibilityEvent
+            ) {
+                if (event.eventType == AccessibilityEvent.TYPE_VIEW_TEXT_CHANGED) {
+                    return
+                }
+
+                if (event.eventType == AccessibilityEvent.TYPE_WINDOW_CONTENT_CHANGED) {
+                    val changeTypes = event.contentChangeTypes
+
+                    if ((changeTypes and AccessibilityEvent.CONTENT_CHANGE_TYPE_TEXT) != 0
+                        && (changeTypes
+                            and AccessibilityEvent.CONTENT_CHANGE_TYPE_CONTENT_DESCRIPTION)
+                            == 0
+                    ) {
+                        return
+                    }
+                }
+
+                super.sendAccessibilityEventUnchecked(host, event)
+            }
+        })
+    }
+
     @JvmStatic
 	fun isTablet(context: Context) = when (PrefsUtility.appearance_twopane()) {
 		AppearanceTwopane.AUTO -> context.resources.configuration.screenLayout and

src/main/java/org/quantumbadger/redreader/fragments/CommentListingFragment.java

@@ -321,11 +321,12 @@ public void handleCommentVisibilityToggle(final RedditCommentView view) {
 
 		if(item.isComment()) {
 			final RedditRenderableComment comment = item.asComment();
+			final boolean nowCollapsed = !comment.isCollapsed(changeDataManager);
 
 			changeDataManager.markHidden(
 					TimestampUTC.now(),
 					comment.getIdAndType(),
-					!comment.isCollapsed(changeDataManager));
+					nowCollapsed);
 
 			mCommentListingManager.updateHiddenStatus();
 
@@ -336,6 +337,12 @@ public void handleCommentVisibilityToggle(final RedditCommentView view) {
 			if(position == layoutManager.findFirstVisibleItemPosition()) {
 				layoutManager.scrollToPositionWithOffset(position, 0);
 			}
+
+			General.announceForAccessibility(
+					view,
+					nowCollapsed
+							? R.string.accessibility_announcement_comment_collapsed
+							: R.string.accessibility_announcement_comment_expanded);
 		}
 	}
 

src/main/java/org/quantumbadger/redreader/reddit/api/RedditAPICommentAction.java

@@ -636,6 +636,28 @@ protected void onSuccess() {
 						if(action == RedditAPI.ACTION_DELETE) {
 							General.quickToast(context, R.string.delete_success);
 						}
+
+						if(!vote) {
+							return;
+						}
+
+						final int announcementRes;
+
+						switch(action) {
+							case RedditAPI.ACTION_UPVOTE:
+								announcementRes = R.string.accessibility_announcement_upvoted;
+								break;
+							case RedditAPI.ACTION_DOWNVOTE:
+								announcementRes = R.string.accessibility_announcement_downvoted;
+								break;
+							default:
+								announcementRes = R.string.accessibility_announcement_removed_vote;
+								break;
+						}
+
+						General.announceForAccessibility(
+								activity.getWindow().getDecorView(),
+								announcementRes);
 					}
 
 					private void revertOnFailure() {

src/main/java/org/quantumbadger/redreader/reddit/api/RedditPostActions.kt

@@ -1138,6 +1138,17 @@ object RedditPostActions {
 
 						else -> throw java.lang.RuntimeException("Unknown post action")
 					}
+
+					if (vote) {
+						General.announceForAccessibility(
+							activity.window.decorView,
+							when (action) {
+								RedditAPI.ACTION_UPVOTE -> R.string.accessibility_announcement_upvoted
+								RedditAPI.ACTION_DOWNVOTE -> R.string.accessibility_announcement_downvoted
+								else -> R.string.accessibility_announcement_removed_vote
+							}
+						)
+					}
 				}
 
 				private fun revertOnFailure() {

src/main/java/org/quantumbadger/redreader/views/RedditCommentView.java

@@ -342,6 +342,7 @@ public RedditCommentView(
 
 		mIndentView = rootView.findViewById(R.id.view_reddit_comment_indentview);
 		mHeader = rootView.findViewById(R.id.view_reddit_comment_header);
+		General.suppressAccessibilityTextChangeEvents(mHeader);
 		mBodyHolder = rootView.findViewById(R.id.view_reddit_comment_bodyholder);
 		mIndentedContent = rootView.findViewById(R.id.view_reddit_comment_indented_content);
 

src/main/java/org/quantumbadger/redreader/views/RedditPostHeaderView.java

@@ -89,6 +89,7 @@ public RedditPostHeaderView(
 		subtitle.setTextSize(13.0f * subtitleFontScale);
 		subtitle.setText(post.buildSubtitle(activity, true));
 		subtitle.setContentDescription(post.buildAccessibilitySubtitle(activity, true));
+		General.suppressAccessibilityTextChangeEvents(subtitle);
 
 		subtitle.setTextColor(Color.rgb(200, 200, 200));
 		greyHeader.addView(subtitle);

src/main/java/org/quantumbadger/redreader/views/RedditPostView.java

@@ -228,6 +228,8 @@ public void handleMessage(@NonNull final Message msg) {
 		title = Objects.requireNonNull(rootView.findViewById(R.id.reddit_post_title));
 		subtitle = Objects.requireNonNull(rootView.findViewById(R.id.reddit_post_subtitle));
 
+		General.suppressAccessibilityTextChangeEvents(subtitle);
+
 		mCommentsButtonPref =
 				PrefsUtility.appearance_post_show_comments_button();
 

src/main/res/values/strings.xml

@@ -1953,4 +1953,22 @@
 	<string name="pref_about_github_key" translatable="false">pref_about_github</string>
 	<string name="pref_about_github_title">Source code</string>
 	<string name="pref_about_github_url" translatable="false">https://github.com/QuantumBadger/RedReader</string>
+
+	<!-- 2026-08-22 -->
+	<!--
+		Screen reader announcements. These must stay at most 30 characters long,
+		including in translation: TalkBack silently discards longer announcements
+		when accessibility focus moves just afterwards. A unit test
+		(AccessibilityAnnouncementLengthTest) enforces this for every locale.
+	-->
+	<!-- Translators: spoken by the screen reader after a vote. Max 30 characters. -->
+	<string name="accessibility_announcement_upvoted">Upvoted</string>
+	<!-- Translators: spoken by the screen reader after a vote. Max 30 characters. -->
+	<string name="accessibility_announcement_downvoted">Downvoted</string>
+	<!-- Translators: spoken by the screen reader after removing a vote. Max 30 characters. -->
+	<string name="accessibility_announcement_removed_vote">Removed vote</string>
+	<!-- Translators: spoken by the screen reader after collapsing a comment. Max 30 characters. -->
+	<string name="accessibility_announcement_comment_collapsed">Collapsed comment</string>
+	<!-- Translators: spoken by the screen reader after expanding a comment. Max 30 characters. -->
+	<string name="accessibility_announcement_comment_expanded">Expanded</string>
 </resources>

src/test/java/org/quantumbadger/redreader/test/general/AccessibilityAnnouncementLengthTest.java

@@ -0,0 +1,126 @@
+/*******************************************************************************
+ * This file is part of RedReader.
+ *
+ * RedReader is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+ * the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+ * (at your option) any later version.
+ *
+ * RedReader is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+ * GNU General Public License for more details.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+ * along with RedReader.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+ ******************************************************************************/
+
+package org.quantumbadger.redreader.test.general;
+
+import org.junit.Test;
+import org.w3c.dom.Document;
+import org.w3c.dom.Element;
+import org.w3c.dom.NodeList;
+
+import java.io.File;
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+
+import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilder;
+import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertNotNull;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
+
+public class AccessibilityAnnouncementLengthTest {
+
+	// TalkBack only reports an announcement uninterruptibly when it is at most
+	// VERBOSE_UTTERANCE_THRESHOLD_CHARACTERS (30) characters long. Longer
+	// announcements are merely queued, and the queue is flushed when
+	// accessibility focus moves, so an over-length announcement made just
+	// before a focus change (such as an action confirmation) is discarded
+	// silently. This test keeps every locale's announcement strings under
+	// the limit.
+	private static final int TALKBACK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE_MAX_LENGTH = 30;
+
+	private static final String ANNOUNCEMENT_PREFIX = "accessibility_announcement_";
+
+	@Test
+	public void announcementStringsFitTalkBackThreshold() throws Exception {
+
+		final File resDir = new File("src/main/res");
+
+		assertTrue(
+				"Resource directory not found: " + resDir.getAbsolutePath(),
+				resDir.isDirectory());
+
+		final File[] valueDirs = resDir.listFiles(
+				(dir, name) -> name.startsWith("values"));
+
+		assertNotNull(valueDirs);
+
+		final DocumentBuilder builder
+				= DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance().newDocumentBuilder();
+
+		final ArrayList<String> failures = new ArrayList<>();
+		int checked = 0;
+
+		for(final File valueDir : valueDirs) {
+
+			final File stringsFile = new File(valueDir, "strings.xml");
+
+			if(!stringsFile.isFile()) {
+				continue;
+			}
+
+			final Document document = builder.parse(stringsFile);
+			final NodeList strings = document.getElementsByTagName("string");
+
+			for(int i = 0; i < strings.getLength(); i++) {
+
+				final Element element = (Element)strings.item(i);
+				final String name = element.getAttribute("name");
+
+				if(!name.startsWith(ANNOUNCEMENT_PREFIX)) {
+					continue;
+				}
+
+				final String text = unescapeAndroidString(element.getTextContent());
+				checked++;
+
+				if(text.length() > TALKBACK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE_MAX_LENGTH) {
+					failures.add(valueDir.getName() + "/" + name + " is "
+							+ text.length() + " characters: \"" + text + "\"");
+				}
+			}
+		}
+
+		assertTrue(
+				"No announcement strings found; has the naming prefix changed?",
+				checked > 0);
+
+		assertTrue(
+				"Announcement strings longer than TalkBack's uninterruptible "
+						+ "limit of " + TALKBACK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE_MAX_LENGTH
+						+ " characters (these would be silently discarded when "
+						+ "accessibility focus moves):\n"
+						+ String.join("\n", failures),
+				failures.isEmpty());
+	}
+
+	private static String unescapeAndroidString(final String s) {
+
+		String res = s.trim();
+
+		if(res.length() >= 2
+				&& res.startsWith("\"")
+				&& res.endsWith("\"")) {
+			res = res.substring(1, res.length() - 1);
+		}
+
+		return res
+				.replace("\\'", "'")
+				.replace("\\\"", "\"")
+				.replace("\\n", "\n")
+				.replace("\\t", "\t");
+	}
+}