FCC has added an “accessibility mode” for the monaco editor. By default, when a challenge loads, the focus is dropped into the editor, which can be annoying for keyboard users. If accessibility mode is turned on then this editor auto-focus is prevented, which is great. Unfortunately, it appears that accessibility mode also prevents the editor from line wrapping, which is not so great. I believe this is monaco’s attempt to make the editor more accessible to screen reader users, which I can completely understand, but not all keyboard users are screen reader users and thus the lack of line wrapping is a worse experience for sighted keyboard users.
I think perhaps we might want to de-couple the editor focus issue from accessibility mode so that sighted keyboard users can get the benefit of not having the editor auto-focused but also keep line wrapping. I’ve got a few ideas in mind of how to do this but I wanted to get other’s input just in case I’m missing something obvious.
I haven’t been able to find an option in monaco that enables line wrapping. Do you happen to know if one exists?
Regardless, I’m not sure sighted keyboard users should have to enable accessibility mode in order to avoid the editor auto focus when the page loads. Personally, I don’t think the editor should be focused by default for anyone, but I understand why this is done, so I’m thinking that perhaps we need a setting that allows people to choose whether they want the editor auto-focused when they open a challenge. The default could be to auto-focus the editor and the setting would allow someone to turn that off.