Bitbucket merge button missing aria-disabled and keyboard focus when disabled

Accessibility gap in pull-request merge control

The merge button in Bitbucket Cloud pull requests does not expose an explicit aria-disabled attribute when the button enters a disabled state. Screen readers therefore announce the control inconsistently—some read it as an ordinary button, others as unavailable—leaving users uncertain whether the action is truly blocked. Compounding the issue, keyboard navigation skips the disabled button entirely, breaking the expected tab order and preventing keyboard-only users from discovering the control or its state.

These behaviors have been observed in the current public Bitbucket Cloud UI across Chrome and Firefox with NVDA and VoiceOver. The exact conditions that trigger the disabled state (required approvals, merge checks, branch permissions) are documented, but the accessibility implementation has not been updated to match.

Open questions

• Does Bitbucket plan to add aria-disabled="true" to the merge button when merge checks fail or approvals are missing?
• Can the disabled merge button remain in the tab order so keyboard users can reach and inspect it?
• Which ARIA pattern (alert, status, or live region) should announce the reason the merge is blocked?