Issue Summary

The aria-label on <button> elements within sortable table headers is excessively verbose.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open the Jira DC instance.
2. In the header, click Projects and open any project.
3. Navigate to Issues and open any issue filter.
4. Using a screen reader, navigate to the issues table and use Control + Option + Arrow (Mac) or Control + Alt + Arrow (Windows) to move through the data.
5. Observe that the screen reader announces an overly verbose message for the sortable column buttons.

Screen Recording

Sortable Announcement.mp4

Actual Results

When screen reader users navigate through the "Issues" table using table navigation commands (e.g., Ctrl + Alt + Arrow keys on Windows or Control + Option + Arrow keys on macOS), the screen reader announces verbose aria-label content for each column header and its corresponding data cells. For example, announcements such as "T: no sorting applied to the column. Activate to apply an ascending sort", "Key: no sorting applied to the column. Activate to apply an ascending sort", and "Summary: no sorting applied to the column. Activate to apply an ascending sort" are read aloud for every column header. This behavior also occurs when navigating through the data associated with these columns. The root cause is the overly verbose aria-label assigned to the <button> elements within the sortable table headers. As a result, screen reader users are presented with redundant and excessive information.

Expected Results

Ensure that aria-label attributes provide concise, meaningful descriptions that accurately convey information to screen reader users.

In this case, update the aria-label attributes on the <button> elements within sortable table headers to clearly reflect both the column name and the current sorting state.

Apply the following changes:

• When no sort is applied: "T: Sort", "Key: Sort", "Summary: Sort", etc.
• When sorted ascending: "T: Sorted ascending"
• When sorted descending: "Key: Sorted descending"

Workaround

Currently there is no known workaround for this behavior. A workaround will be added here when available

Environment

MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021)
macOS Sequoia 15.4.1
Operations - Windows11
Chrome - Version 136.0.7103.93 (Official Build) (64-bit)
Safari- Version 18.4
Firefox- Version 138.0.1 (64-bit)
JAWS- Version 2023
NVDA- Version 2024.4.2
VoiceOver - Version Latest