Per a separate email discussion, we decided to go with empty alt text.

krb: I'm not actually sure exactly where this is defined. If you take a look and it's not obvious, let me know.

Before I look, I should first make sure I understand the behavior that you want. When I enable ChromeVox, open a NTP and tab and mouse around, I don't hear any "image" spoken around the G. I only hear the correct, "Address and search bar".

Still happening? Mac only?

The GM2 UI is required, so either chrome://flags/#upcoming-ui-features or chrome://flags/#top-chrome-md=Refresh should be enabled. If you're not hearing it with either of hose, email lpalmaro and ask for repro steps.

another datapoint if helpful:

Windows Canary 69.0.3489.0, upcoming UI enabled, using NVDA screen reader - on new tab page, text read is 

Address and search bar  edit  has auto complete  Ctrl+L
blank

"blank" is because the omnibox has no text. If I have text there it's read instead.
"image" doesn't appear in the text.


here's my nvda debugging speech log, starting with focus near the end of the NTP ready to cycle back; annotations prefaced by "//" were added:

// Start: 
// focus on last most visited suggestion
Chrome Web Store
link  Chrome Web Store
// Forward Tab - goes to "x" of that most visited suggestion
Don't show on this page  button
// Forward Tab - 
Address and search bar  edit  has auto complete  Ctrl+L
blank
// Forward tab - goes to the page
document
link
Gmail
link

Thanks for the data point. Mac's is different. Here's the Omnibox:

"Address and search bar, edit text" (I believe that this is the 'name' field, plus something that I haven't figured out yet)
"%L, you are currently on a text field, inside of a window. To enter text in this field, type" (I believe that this is the 'description'field'.)

For the search icon, I get:

"(Search icon), image" (I can replace 'Search icon'. I don't know where 'image' is coming from.)
"You are currently on a image, inside of a window"

The fact that it says "a image" instead of "an image" tells me that 'image' is being substituted.

I'm printing out the debugging info of the accessibility node data in LocationIconView::GetAccessibilityNodeData() and there's nothing like 'image'. I'm guessing that it's coming from the OS.

Anyone know more? (Is adding "Search icon" here sufficient ?)

totally FYI -

with the VoiceOver reader on mac, 69.0.3486.0 dev, I can't get the G in the omnibox to read out or have a tab stop.

I do see it representing as "image" in Accessibility Inspector, in case that tool helps to narrow it down.

Ya, the only way is to ctrl-alt-left arrow to it (with VoiceOver).

The following revision refers to this bug:
  https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git/+/a216a5e573d901903e8e4fe2bae1fb7da28c7a60

commit a216a5e573d901903e8e4fe2bae1fb7da28c7a60
Author: Kevin Bailey <krb@chromium.org>
Date: Wed Jul 18 20:22:42 2018

[omnibox] Add name to icon for accessibility description

MacOS is capable of generating an accessibility description for the
search icon on the Omnibox, but we currently don't fill it in. This
CL adds a name to it (and there may be a follow-up to tweak the
"image" string that is also getting appended.)

Bug:  862745 
Change-Id: I53f7250c848761127a29bdad4e215830c365bb97
Reviewed-on: https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/1138548
Reviewed-by: Justin Donnelly <jdonnelly@chromium.org>
Commit-Queue: Kevin Bailey <krb@chromium.org>
Cr-Commit-Position: refs/heads/master@{#576184}
[modify] https://crrev.com/a216a5e573d901903e8e4fe2bae1fb7da28c7a60/chrome/browser/ui/views/location_bar/location_icon_view.cc
[modify] https://crrev.com/a216a5e573d901903e8e4fe2bae1fb7da28c7a60/components/omnibox_strings.grdp

Leaving this open while we evaluate whether the change in #13 is sufficient. Lowering the priority in the meantime.

Just verified that this is now working. Marking as fixed!