ObservableCollection DataContext in ListViewItem accessibility issue

[vsfeedback]

This issue has been moved from a ticket on Developer Community.

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Hi
When Listview control in WPF binds to observable collection datasource , accessibility read out the type of observable collection type class instead of the listviewitem contents while navigation from keyboard up or down arrow keys.

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Original Comments

Feedback Bot on 9/11/2024, 07:11 AM:

We have directed your feedback to the appropriate engineering team for further evaluation. The team will review the feedback and notify you about the next steps.

Ann Yang [MSFT] on 9/11/2024, 00:03 PM:

Thank you for taking the time to log this issue!
In order to help us better understand this scenario, could you attach a video of the issue you describe using [ScreenToGif] ( https://www.screentogif.com/) or a similar tool? We hope we can learn the actual result and the expect result which you want from the video.
It would be appreciated if you could attach a demonstration project in your video.
We are looking forward to hearing from you soon.
Thanks

Rajat Gupta on 9/11/2024, 06:45 PM:

(private comment, text removed)

Feedback Bot on 9/12/2024, 11:59 AM:

We have directed your feedback to the appropriate engineering team for further evaluation. The team will review the feedback and notify you about the next steps.

[miloush]

A repro project would be helpful.

[himgoyalmicro]

You need to explicitly set the AutomationProperties.Name for ListViewItem inside ListView.

<ListView.ItemContainerStyle>
    <Style TargetType="ListViewItem" BasedOn="{StaticResource DefaultListViewItemStyle}">
        <Setter Property="AutomationProperties.Name" Value="{Binding Name, Mode=OneWay}"/>
    </Style>
</ListView.ItemContainerStyle>

Let us know if this resolves your issue.

[TheQuinbox]

hi @himgoyalmicro,
I wouldn't call this a solution. In my mind this is still a bug, the semantic information given to screen readers by default should be as good as possible IMO. Giving the name of the class is incredibly unhelpful, while giving the text of the item is incredibly helpful and standard behavior across Windows.
Thanks.

[himgoyalmicro]

Hey @TheQuinbox
Yeah, the fix I provided earlier was indeed a workaround. After a more in-depth investigation, I discovered that we need to override the ToString function for the ListItem class. Otherwise, AutomationPeer will use the default Object.ToString, which will result in the type of the observable collection class being returned.

Without overriding the ToString function:

With overriding the function:

Here is a minimal sample repro:
ListViewItemAutomationPeer.zip