Reader views are now broken

[gaussandhisgun]

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Most, if not all, modern browsers come with a feature called Reader View. It allows them to extract articles from web pages and draw them in a mostly distraction free, simple environment, and also read them out loud in some cases. And if your browser does not have one - there's stuff like Cozy and rdrview that are, essentially, standalone reader modes for any browser of your choice.

Github used to work mostly fine with these just two days ago. At least, when you opened a project that has a README, it was detected that it has an article to display, and when you tap the reader mode button, you'd end up on a Reader Mode view of the README. Granted, it did have some visual junk, but the README was there.

This is a recreation of what it looked like, using archive.org and Cozy (because apparently i have not taken a single screenshot of this amazing feature before it broke):

So a few minutes ago I opened a random github project to show some bookmarklet stuff to my friends and was greeted with this:

The README is nowhere to be seen. All that there is to it now is some random links from the navigation bar. This limits the accessibility of most, if not all, projects already present on Github for people with ADHD (which i see increasingly more of every day of my life), or for people who might need a screen reader to understand the stuff that's happening in the README (remember, Firefox has that in its reader mode?).

Out of nowhere, gitea supports screen readers on roughly the same level Github used to do a week ago. Take a look yourself in Cozy. There's still some junk in the beginning, but the README is entirely there.

Maybe, adding proper support for this stuff will make Github slightly better than its competitors? Maybe doing this will make internet as a whole a slightly, ahem, cozier place?

[ghostinhershell]

Hi @gaussandhisgun,

Thanks so much for reaching out in our community! I'm going to try to recreate this issue on my end. Are you seeing this issue when viewing GitHub using Safari Desktop or Safari Mobile?

[gaussandhisgun]

There is no way I can possibly check that, as I have exactly zero Apple devices. And that is Firefox.

[cehfisher]

Hi @gaussandhisgun - I wanted to follow up on this issue. Have the recent theme changes resolved this for you? If yes, could you please close the issue? If no, what additional changes are needed? Please supply detailed instructions to reproduce your issue and include screenshots and/or URLs, if applicable. Thank you! (cc @queenofcorgis)

[gaussandhisgun]

Right now its more broken than it ever was, actually.

The steps are the same, open any project in Firefox and tap the reader view button.

[gaussandhisgun]

HUH.

If you first scroll down to see the actual README and then open the reader view, it will display all of the garbage from the previous image, the list of files in the project (including their commit messages) and the README.

which is arguably even less accessible tbh

[cehfisher]

Hello @gaussandhisgun - thank you for providing this additional feedback! We will file this with our Accessibility team so that it can be reviewed and will follow-up here with any additional questions or updates. Thanks again!

[cehfisher]

Hello @gaussandhisgun - just a quick note that we're actively working on this internally, but we don't have a specific timeline or further details to share at this time. Thank you for your patience, and we'll keep you updated as we make progress.

[cehfisher]

Quick update: our accessibility team did some investigation on this issue. It appears Reader Mode is possible when viewing the README file directly, but not when on the repo landing page. There are some fixes that should be in place soon! I'll post another update when I have one.

[cehfisher]

Hello @gaussandhisgun - could you retest this issue? Some recent changes were pushed up related to this issue, but unsure if it applies to your specific situation or not. Thanks!

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