Telegram Desktop Accessibility for NVDA

Overview

Telegram Desktop Accessibility is an NVDA add-on for Telegram Desktop on Windows. It adds two direct navigation commands while leaving Telegram's native accessibility behavior and accessible names unchanged.

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.
• Chat detection uses Telegram's stable UIA class information rather than a translated control name, so the commands do not depend on Telegram's interface language.
• Telegram continues to provide the names of chats, messages, buttons, and list items. The add-on does not replace or rewrite them.

Usage

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

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.

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 locates Telegram's native menu button inside Dialogs::Widget and invokes its existing action.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Add-on

Shortcut	Provided by	Function
Alt+1	Add-on	Move focus to the chat list
Alt+M	Add-on	Open the main menu

Chats

Shortcut	Provided by	Function
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

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
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

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.