zulip/zulip-flutter

Fix scrolling to older messages with screen reader

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#1,965 opened on Nov 1, 2025

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a-a11ya-msglisthelp wanted

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Description

This was found in https://github.com/zulip/zulip-flutter/issues/535#issuecomment-2973276995 when investigating the app's behavior with a screen reader:

Navigating backwards (to older messages) does not work smoothly. Sometimes the focus can get moved to the sticky header instead of the previous message; sometimes the focus moves off-screen or behind the sticky header, instead of automatically scrolled. For reference on the correct behavior, see what happens when you are about to navigate to a channel item on the channels page off-screen.

We should fix this.

A required part of any PR to address this issue will be to try it out with a screen reader and confirm how it behaves. See the description of #535 for instructions.

Contributor guide

Research direction
Investigate the scrolling behavior in the message list widget and ensure that navigating to older messages correctly moves the screen reader focus to the previous message, not the sticky header or off screen.
Tech stack
dartflutter
Domain
mobileaccessibility
Issue type
Bug
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
Half day
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Clear
Prerequisites
FlutterAccessibility testing with screen readers
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
65