Summary

Implement comprehensive accessibility help (Alt+F1) across all VS Code find and filter experiences to improve screen reader user experience with NVDA, JAWS, and VoiceOver.

Problem

Screen reader users currently struggle to discover:

• Available keyboard shortcuts in find/filter dialogs
• How to navigate between search fields and results
• Differences between "find" and "filter" operations
• Context-specific behaviors (e.g., Terminal find reversed Enter key)

Solution

Add Alt+F1 accessibility help across 7 find/filter contexts:

1. Foundation & Infrastructure

• Add AccessibilityVerbositySettingId.Find configuration
• Extend AccessibleViewProviderId for find/filter contexts
• Add accessibility help trigger to FindController
• Register contributions in all find/filter features

2. Accessibility Help Content (7 providers)

• Editor Find/Replace - Comprehensive help with current search status
• Terminal Find - Terminal-specific behaviors (reversed Enter)
• Webview Find - Extension-provided find with limitations
• Output Panel Filter - Filter vs. find distinction
• Problems Panel Filter - Quick filtering in error lists
• Debug Console Filter - REPL filtering
• Search Across Files - Multi-file search help

3. ARIA Hints & Bug Fixes

• Add aria-description hints: "Press Alt+F1 for accessibility help"
• Fix spurious "No results" announcements on empty search
• Fix stale aria-label updates when widget hidden
• Prevent double-speak with 1-second reset timeout

Files Changed

• 10 foundation/infrastructure files
• 7 accessibility help provider files
• 6 widget files with ARIA improvements
• ~3,000 lines total

Testing

All find/filter dialogs tested with:

• NVDA on Windows
• JAWS on Windows
• VoiceOver on macOS

Related

Addresses accessibility gaps in find/filter workflows identified by screen reader users.