Report multi select on list boxes that support it

[LeonarddeR]

Link to issue number:

Closes #18365

Summary of the issue:

NVDA does not report whether multiple selection is supported on a list control.

Description of user facing changes:

NVDA now reports multi select for a list that supports multiple selection.

Description of developer facing changes:

None

Description of development approach:

1. Add a new MULTISELECTABLE state, analogous to oleacc
2. Map that state to the oleacc state for MSAA
3. Map the UIA Selection Can Select Multiple property to the new state.

Testing strategy:

• In firefox, a select box with <select multiple="true">
• A list box in accevent.exe from the Windows SDK
• Desktop list view
• List view in Windows Explorer

Known issues with pull request:

I think that announcing this by default is overly verbose. It might make sense to add an option in object presentation category.

Code Review Checklist:

• Documentation:
  • Change log entry
  • User Documentation
  • Developer / Technical Documentation
  • Context sensitive help for GUI changes
• Testing:
  • Unit tests
  • System (end to end) tests
  • Manual testing
• UX of all users considered:
  • Speech
  • Braille
  • Low Vision
  • Different web browsers
  • Localization in other languages / culture than English
• API is compatible with existing add-ons.
• Security precautions taken.

@coderabbitai summary

[LeonarddeR]

Blocked by #18410

[seanbudd]

@LeonarddeR - could you provide an update on the state of this PR / the blocked issue? what product decision were you requesting when adding the label?

[LeonarddeR]

@seanbudd This pull request adds an option to the object navigation category that applies to all places where objects occur, both in focus mode and browse mode. However in #18410, I mentioned the panel description of that category:

Configure how much information NVDA will present about controls. These options apply to focus reporting and NVDA object navigation, but not when reading text content e.g. web content with browse mode.

Therefore the documentation on the panel conflicts with this pr. Note that the documentation also conflicts with the Report object shortcut keys option, which has a similar scope as the new multi select option added in this pr.

So basically why I'm requesting a product decision. What is considered wrong, the panel description or the behavior of these controls that both apply to focus and browse mode?
If the panel description is considered wrong, I prefer to change it as part of this PR.

[Copilot]

Pull Request Overview

This PR adds support for reporting when list controls support multiple selection. NVDA will now announce "multi-select" for lists that allow selecting multiple items, with a new configuration option to control this behavior.

Key changes:

• Introduces a new MULTISELECTABLE state to represent when a control supports multiple selection
• Maps UIA and MSAA properties to this new state for different accessibility APIs
• Adds a user-configurable option to enable/disable this reporting (disabled by default)

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 10 out of 10 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
source/controlTypes/state.py	Defines new MULTISELECTABLE state constant and display string
source/controlTypes/processAndLabelStates.py	Adds logic to conditionally report the multiselectable state based on user preference
source/config/configSpec.py	Adds configuration option for reporting multi-select capability
source/gui/settingsDialogs.py	Adds UI checkbox for the new configuration option
source/braille.py	Adds braille representation for the multiselectable state
source/NVDAObjects/UIA/init.py	Maps UIA SelectionCanSelectMultiple property to the new state
source/NVDAObjects/IAccessible/init.py	Maps Windows list box extended selection style to the new state
source/IAccessibleHandler/init.py	Maps MSAA multiselectable state to the new NVDA state
source/winUser.py	Adds Windows constant for extended selection list box style
user_docs/en/userGuide.md	Documents the new configuration option

[SaschaCowley]

We wil fix the description of the object presentation panel separately.

@LeonarddeR why is this blocked/needs-internal-fix?

[LeonarddeR]

Because I thought the issue with the panel should be fixed first. I'm happy to remove the label though.

[seanbudd]

Thanks @LeonarddeR

[Qchristensen]

Reads well, good work