Telegram Desktop Accessibility

• Author: Ken Chang
• Telegram channel
• Telegram user group

Overview

Telegram Desktop Accessibility is an NVDA add-on for Telegram Desktop on Windows. It adds direct navigation and call commands, reads replies the way Unigram does, and fills missing accessible names on known Telegram controls.

Features

• Alt+1 moves focus to the selected chat in the chat list, or to the first chat when no chat is selected.
• Alt+M opens Telegram's main menu.
• Ctrl+Enter on a message opens its link, or lists them when the message has several. Only web, e-mail and Telegram links are offered; file paths in a message are never opened. Elsewhere, such as in the message composer, Ctrl+Enter reaches Telegram unchanged.
• Replies are read the way Unigram reads them: who the message replies to, then the reply itself. Telegram's line "In reply to Bob: " followed by the whole quoted message becomes "In reply to Bob". Left Arrow on a reply reads the quoted message, as in UnigramPlus. Telegram's own wording is kept, so this follows Telegram's display language. It can be turned off in NVDA's settings.
• Alt+Y, Alt+N, Alt+A and Alt+V answer a call, decline or end it, mute or unmute the microphone, and turn the camera on or off. Each of them reports the action in Telegram's own wording, so it follows Telegram's display language.
• Every command is listed in NVDA's Input Gestures dialog under "Telegram Desktop Accessibility", so any default shortcut can be reassigned or removed. Outside Telegram the assigned keystroke reaches the application unchanged.
• Structural main-menu controls such as Profile and Accounts, unnamed composer controls, and the top-bar suggestion receive useful accessible labels. A real name supplied by Telegram is always preserved.
• A foreground-aware fallback keeps the shortcuts and labels available when UnigramPlus or another installed add-on claims Telegram's shared app-module slot. It does not bind the shortcuts outside Telegram.
• Chat and call controls are detected through Telegram's stable UIA class information rather than a translated control name, so the commands do not depend on Telegram's interface language.
• Controls that expose only Telegram's internal C++ class path no longer announce that path. Other names from Telegram are not replaced.

Usage

Install the add-on, restart NVDA when prompted, and use the add-on shortcuts from the main Telegram window. No configuration is required.

To hear the quoted message in full whenever a reply is read, open NVDA menu > Preferences > Settings, choose the "Telegram Desktop Accessibility" category, and clear "Read replies without the quoted message". Left Arrow is then left to Telegram as well. Pressing Left Arrow on a message that is not a reply reports that it is not a reply. Everywhere else, such as in the message composer, Left Arrow works as usual.

If Alt+1 cannot find a chat list or the list is empty, NVDA reports that condition. If Alt+M is unavailable on the current Telegram screen, NVDA reports that the main menu is not available. The call commands report that there is no incoming call, or that you are not in a call, when the matching control is not on screen. A call runs in a window of its own, so the call commands also work while the main Telegram window is in front.

To use different keys, open NVDA menu > Preferences > Input Gestures, expand the "Telegram Desktop Accessibility" category, and add or remove a gesture for any command.

Keyboard Shortcuts

In the "Provided by" column, Add-on identifies shortcuts provided by this add-on and Telegram Desktop identifies shortcuts built into Telegram Desktop.

Tip: you can customize the add-on shortcuts from NVDA menu > Preferences > Input Gestures.

Chats

Shortcut	Provided by	Function
Alt+1	Add-on	Move focus to the chat list
Ctrl+Enter	Add-on	Open the link in the focused message, or choose one of its links
Left Arrow	Add-on	Read the quoted message of the focused reply
Up / Down / Page Up / Page Down	Telegram Desktop	Navigate within a chat
Shift+Scroll	Telegram Desktop	Speed up in-chat navigation
Up / Left / Right / Down	Telegram Desktop	Navigate suggested stickers
Left / Right	Telegram Desktop	Navigate suggested emoji
Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Page Down / Alt+Down	Telegram Desktop	Move to the chat below
Ctrl+Shift+Tab / Ctrl+Page Up / Alt+Up	Telegram Desktop	Move to the chat above
Esc	Telegram Desktop	Exit, go back, or cancel the current action
Ctrl+O	Telegram Desktop	Send a file

Calls

Shortcut	Provided by	Function
Alt+Y	Add-on	Answer the incoming call
Alt+N	Add-on	Decline the incoming call, or end the call in progress
Alt+A	Add-on	Mute or unmute the microphone during a call
Alt+V	Add-on	Turn the camera on or off during a call

Folders

Shortcut	Provided by	Function
Ctrl+Shift+Down	Telegram Desktop	Move to the folder below
Ctrl+Shift+Up	Telegram Desktop	Move to the folder above
Ctrl+1 through Ctrl+7	Telegram Desktop	Jump directly to a folder
Ctrl+8	Telegram Desktop	Jump to the last folder

Messages

Shortcut	Provided by	Function
Ctrl+Up / Ctrl+Down	Telegram Desktop	Reply to a message
Ctrl+Down / Esc	Telegram Desktop	Cancel a reply
Up	Telegram Desktop	Edit the last message sent
Delete	Telegram Desktop	Delete the currently selected message
Ctrl+Numpad Plus / Ctrl+Numpad Minus	Telegram Desktop	Zoom an image or video in or out
Ctrl+Click the name	Telegram Desktop	Open a bot profile from an inline message

Search

Shortcut	Provided by	Function
Ctrl+F	Telegram Desktop	Search the selected chat
Esc	Telegram Desktop	Exit search
Ctrl+J	Telegram Desktop	Search for a contact

Quick Share Panel

Shortcut	Provided by	Function
Up / Down	Telegram Desktop	Navigate the panel
Enter	Telegram Desktop	Select a chat
Backspace / Delete	Telegram Desktop	Remove a chat
Ctrl+Enter	Telegram Desktop	Send the message

Jump To

Shortcut	Provided by	Function
Alt+Enter	Telegram Desktop	Jump to the bottom of the chat or scroll the chat list to the top
Ctrl+0	Telegram Desktop	Open Saved Messages
Ctrl+1 through Ctrl+5	Telegram Desktop	Jump directly to a pinned chat when there are no folders
Ctrl+9	Telegram Desktop	Open Archived Chats

Window

Shortcut	Provided by	Function
Alt+M	Add-on	Open the main menu
Ctrl+W / Alt+F4	Telegram Desktop	Minimize to the system tray
Ctrl+Q	Telegram Desktop	Quit Telegram
Ctrl+L	Telegram Desktop	Lock Telegram
Ctrl+M	Telegram Desktop	Minimize Telegram

Selected Text

Shortcut	Provided by	Function
Ctrl+B	Telegram Desktop	Bold
Ctrl+I	Telegram Desktop	Italic
Ctrl+K	Telegram Desktop	Create a link
Ctrl+U	Telegram Desktop	Underline
Ctrl+Shift+M	Telegram Desktop	Monospace
Ctrl+Shift+N	Telegram Desktop	Remove formatting / plain text
Ctrl+Shift+P	Telegram Desktop	Spoiler
Ctrl+Shift+X	Telegram Desktop	Strikethrough
Ctrl+Shift+Period	Telegram Desktop	Quote

Mouse Shortcuts

Shortcut	Provided by	Function
Double-click a message	Telegram Desktop	Reply
Drag outside the messages	Telegram Desktop	Select messages
Hover over the timestamp	Telegram Desktop	Show message information
Hover over a poll percentage	Telegram Desktop	Show the number of votes
Drag a message to a chat in the list	Telegram Desktop	Forward the message to that chat
Back	Telegram Desktop	Exit Archived Chats
Upload a picture and click its preview	Telegram Desktop	Edit media
Right-click the Send button	Telegram Desktop	Send silently or schedule a message

Implementation

Telegram Desktop's patched Qt accessibility provider exposes RTTI-based UIA class names. The add-on identifies the chat list as Dialogs::InnerWidget, allowing it to work independently of the localized accessible name. The main menu command finds Telegram's native button by UIA point hit-testing near the top-left corner, supporting both Dialogs::Widget and folder-sidebar layouts, then falls back to the existing provider-side subtree query.

Telegram's call panel builds every control as a Ui::CallButton, laid out as screen sharing, camera, cancel or decline, answer or hang up, microphone, add people. Only the camera and the microphone carry a device-selection corner button, so the add-on recognizes those two by that corner button and the remaining commands by their place in the row. No translated name is read to find a control; a name is only read back to report the action, because each button is named after what pressing it does.

Telegram describes each message twice: as one name, a line for each part of the message, and as a row of cells, one per part, always in the same order: read state, sender, inline bot, the message replied to, forward source, media, text, delivery state, time. The reply line is the cell whose value is one of the opening lines of the name, comes after the sender or read state, and names someone before a colon, as Telegram's "In reply to {name}: {text}" does. No translated word is matched, so replies are found in any display language whose translation keeps that colon; where one does not, the reply is read in full as before. The message's own text is recognised as the cell just before the delivery state, and a link preview or location by a later cell that repeats it, so a colon in the message itself is not taken for a reply. A colon in a name can still mislead it, because the line alone does not show where such a name ends: a reply to someone whose name has a colon is read with the name cut at that colon, and a forwarded message whose source has a colon in its name can be read as a reply. Left Arrow always reads the whole line.

A global plug-in owns every command and resolves this add-on's app module by its qualified owner, avoiding the shared appModules/telegram.py lookup when another add-on wins it. Defining the commands once, in a plug-in that is always running, is what keeps a single reassignable entry per command in NVDA's Input Gestures dialog; each command checks the foreground itself and passes its gesture on when Telegram is not in front.

Community and Support

• Official Telegram channel: tdesktopnvda
• Telegram user group: tdesktopnvda_group
• Source code and issue tracking: keyang556/tdesktopnvda
• Developer contact: Ken Chang lindsay714322@gmail.com

Supported Versions

• Telegram Desktop for Windows 7.0.1 or later.
• NVDA 2024.1 or later.

Build From Source

From this repository:

uv run scons

The generated .nvda-addon package can be installed through NVDA's Add-on Store.