Multi-line comments accessibility for screen reader users

[Menelion]

I brought it zillion times on various Microsoft accessibility channels, adding it here and hoping for good.

I use GitHub every day with a screen reader (my preferred setup is Windows + Chrome + JAWS for Windows, but I tested with different combinations). When reviewing a pull request, if you use the mouse, you can select several consecutive lines and add a comment or suggestion for all of them at once. Screen reader users and, in fact, all keyboard users (I assume) have no such possibility.

The solution I proposed is quite simple: There are line numbers. Make them interactable via keyboard (I'd say something like toggle buttons with some ARIA on them), so a press would either select or unselect a line. then, if a user clicks that plus button (which is correctly labeled as Add Line Comment, which was done upon my request back then), a comment will be spread to all the selected lines. If a non-contiguous line is selected, the selection would then be expanded so all the lines until that one would be selected. So, if I click number 5 and then number 10, all lines from 5 to 10 inclusive would be selected.

Thanks in advance.

[davorpa]

Great improve!!!

It also happens with touchable devices 😉

[CyrilleB79]

Yes, it would be really useful, especially for projects such as NVDA, developed for and partly by blind people people using keyboard only.

[Menelion]

@benjiallen This is the discussion I created about the multi-line comments accessibility. Would be nice to have this feature screen-reader accessible. Thanks!

[benjiallen]

Thanks for the feedback @Menelion I'll work with the PRs team to bring this to their attention and keep you in the loop when this lands on a roadmap.

CC: @willsmythe

[Menelion]

First, as this is still not implemented, @benjiallen is there any update on this? And second, could you probably move it to Accessibility category? If I can do it on my own, please guide me how to do it. Thanks!

[akash07k]

Yes, it would be quite useful if gets implemented/fixed

[SpecOps12]

@benjiallen What is the state of this topic? Any news?

[benjiallen]

@SpecOps12 not much to share. The accessibility of commenting is a high priority for the team but there are a few things ahead of it right now. I'll post here once we get started as we'd love to get some user feedback on ideas we have.

[Menelion]

More than a year ago did I bring this issue for the first time. Actually close to one and a half years. It's bitter and sad to admit that such a simple accessibility improvement cannot make it to Github in such a huge amount of time.

[benjiallen]

@Menelion thanks for the feedback. We continue to work on it. Once we have ideas and solutions ready for more comment, we'll share.

[ShaneDittmar]

@benjiallen Has there been any update on making the multi-line comments feature accessible?

[Menelion]

And another half a year passed, even more. any updates on that?
P.S. The whole Accessibility category needs to be cleaned up, it's a nightmare actually. Lots of scam, off topic discussions and simply meaningless garbage.

[burmancomp]

There has been suggestion for one and half a year how this could be solved, and that suggestion has been voted up. However, nobody has had time to consider implementation for this in team.

I am waiting for constructive answer from the team when this is fixed. One and a half year is long time especially taking into account that solution has been suggested and voted up.

[XLTechie]

Any solution to this problem would be welcome!
As a blind developer, this has been a point of pain in the use of GitHub pull requests for years.
I am disappointed to find now that GitHub has been aware of it since at least 2021, but has not prioritized a solution.

Being unable to comment more than one line at a time in PR diffs, is both frustrating to me, and no doubt annoying to my sighted colleagues who must compensate for "my" deficiencies in only providing one-line suggestions that really need to be five or six line suggestions.

[cehfisher]

Hello @Menelion - thank you for taking the time to provide this feedback! Our Accessibility team is actively working on this issue. We will follow-up here with any additional questions or updates. Thanks again! (cc @queenofcorgis)

[cehfisher]

Hello @Menelion - thank you for your patience on this issue! With the recent updates to comments, the accessibility team is hopeful that this has now been fully resolved for you 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

When you have a chance, could you re-test?

I’ve shared the team’s notes below in case they’re helpful:

Validated the issue in current test environment and observed that issue is no longer reproducible as multiple lines can be selected in the diff via Shift + Up/Down key and the user can navigate on the 'Add Comment' button (+) to provide the comments on multiple lines at a time. Please refer to the attachment.

Test Environment
OS: Windows 11 24H2 (OS Build: 26100.5074)
Browser: Google Chrome (Version: 140.0.7339.81)

[Menelion]

@cehfisher Sorry, but everything is broken now. When I first opened GitHub, I didn't see any buttons at all, even with sighted help from my wife.

Then I pressed "Try new experience". Here it's… still broken because although each line is reported as "clickable", I can't reliably add any comment, only in forms mode and with trial and error.
Sorry to admit, but it's not usable at this time, and it's a great fortune I have no team work that requires commenting right now, otherwise I'd be in the deepest trouble.
As you probably know, I'm absolutely opened for whatever, be it video calls, discussions, testing or anything else. I'm also ready to sign any NDA, should the need arise. Thanks.

[CyrilleB79]

@cehfisher, happy to see that this topic is moving forward.

I have tested with:

• Windows 11 24H2 (AMD64) build 26100.4946
• Firefox 142.0.1
• NVDA 2025.3beta3

I have no success when trying to get the "Comment" button, unless I move the mouse pointer to navigator object. And even when I do this, and select many lines with shift+up/downArrows and native selection enabled or not, only one line is being commented at a time.

Is this new multi-line comment capability documented somewhere for screen reader keyboard users so that I can follow it step-by-step?
Thanks

[cehfisher]

Hello @Menelion and @CyrilleB79 - thank you for the additional testing and feedback! I’ve asked the accessibility team and testers to re-open the internal issue and shared your comments and links with them to ensure it’s reviewed and resolved. We really appreciate your help in improving this.