Checkboxes are incorrectly indicated as buttons for screen readers in dark mode

Quentin Cosendey <[email protected]> Thu, 21 Aug 2025 06:26:43 +0200
Newsgroups gmane.comp.lib.wxwindows.general
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Hello,

I have quite a simple and classic dialog box with text fields, 
checkboxes and buttons. Everything works as expected as long as the app 
is in light or unspecified appearance mode.
However, when the app is in dark mode, checkboxes are notified as 
buttons by screen readers (Jaws and NVDA), and their state checked or 
unchecked isn't announced. They continue to work properly, i.e. the 
state correctly switches when clicking or pressing space, but they keep 
being indicated as buttons without state. So screen reader users can no 
longer know that they are checkboxes, and if they are checked or not.

Am I missing something ? Should I do something special for dark mode ? 
Is that a limitation of dark mode ? Or this is just a bug ?

I'm using WXWidgets developement / master branch, last updated about 
10-15 days ago, on Windows 11.
There was no problem with version 3.2.

I activate dark mode with:
SetAppearance(Appearance::Dark);
in wxApp::OnInit, according to user configuration.

My dialog box is pretty simple, some example code:

ConnectDialog::ConnectDialog (App& app0):
wxDialog(nullptr, wxID_ANY,
U(translate("connTitle")),
wxDefaultPosition, wxDefaultSize, wxDEFAULT_DIALOG_STYLE),
app(app0)
{
auto usernameLabel = new wxStaticText(this, wxID_ANY, 
U(translate("login")));
username = new wxTextCtrl(this, ID_USERNAME, wxEmptyString,
wxDefaultPosition, wxDefaultSize, 0);
auto passwordLabel = new wxStaticText(this, wxID_ANY, 
U(translate("password")));
password = new wxTextCtrl(this, ID_PASSWORD, wxEmptyString, 
wxDefaultPosition, wxDefaultSize, wxTE_PASSWORD);
rememberMe = new wxCheckBox(this, ID_REMEMBERME, 
U(translate("rememberpassword")));
autologin = new wxCheckBox(this, ID_AUTOLOGIN, 
U(translate("useAutoLogin")));
auto connectBtn = new wxButton(this, wxID_OK, U(translate("connection")));

...

auto dlgSizer = new wxFlexGridSizer(2, 5, 5);
dlgSizer->Add(usernameLabel, 0);
dlgSizer->Add(username, 0, wxEXPAND);
dlgSizer->Add(passwordLabel, 0);
dlgSizer->Add(password, 0, wxEXPAND);
dlgSizer->Add(new wxStaticText(this, wxID_ANY, wxEmptyString), 0);
dlgSizer->Add(rememberMe, 0, wxEXPAND);
dlgSizer->Add(new wxStaticText(this, wxID_ANY, wxEmptyString), 0);
dlgSizer->Add(autologin, 0, wxEXPAND);
dlgSizer->Add(connectBtn, 0);

...

SetSizerAndFit(dlgSizer);

username->SetFocus();
}


Thank you for your help.


P.S. Sorry if you get this message multiple times. It seems that it 
didn't go through on previous attempt.

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