Bug 161740 – AX: VoiceOver reads aria-hidden aloud when accessed via virtual cursor - down arrow

• Component: Accessibility
• Status: NEW

[Joe Watkins]

VoiceOver on Safari 9.1.1 and Nightly reads content that is wrapped in tag that owns an attribute of aria-hidden="true" when content is accessed via virtual cursor (down arrow). Adding role="presentation" does not help as well.


Test URL: http://s.codepen.io/joe-watkins/debug/aaaa3fb5d794e8b20277fef2543f42b7

Test Results:
Using VoiceOver and Safari user loads the Test URL and uses down arrow to access the content. All content is read to the user.. even the content wrapped in aria-hidden="true". When allowing VO to read the entire page aloud the content wrapped in aria-hidden="true" hidden content is NOT read aloud. It appears to be connected to the down arrow virtual cursor.

Expected Results:
Using VoiceOver and Safari user loads the Test URL and uses down arrow to access the content. All content is NOT read to the user. Content wrapped in aria-hidden="true" is NOT read to the user when using the down arrow to change the cursor's focus.

<p>Wrapping text here <span aria-hidden="true" role="presentation">HIDE ME FROM AT</span> and more text here.</p>

In the attached example you can watch me use the 'read all' command and then I step through using up/down arrow in which then the aria-hidden="true" is read aloud.

[Radar WebKit Bug Importer]

<rdar://problem/28208492>

[Joe Watkins]

Created attachment 288271 [details]
Video Example

Using VoiceOver with Safari - Read All command and then stepping through content with up/down arrows

[Nan Wang]

Hi Joe, 

I see your point. I think this is a long standing issue in webkit that TextMarker related functions don't honor aria-hidden status. So when you navigate the text by character/word/line, it won't ignore the contents that supposed to be. But when you use the normal VO+arrow keys to navigate the content it should all work fine.

[Joe Watkins]

Thanks Nan, I've also noticed that with QuickNav enabled it works as expected as well by honoring aria-hidden="true" -- so it appears to be related to the TextMarker.

[Julie]

Hi,

I dare to update this ticket because the problem still exists in Safari 16.1 with Mac OS Monterey (12.6.1).

Is there any news about it?

Thanks

[Manuel Matuzovic]

This bug is still present in Safari 17.4.

Are there any plans to fix it? It was first reported 8 years ago.

[Tristan Marsell]

This bug still persists through Safari 18.3

Now where the European Accessibility Act (EAA) is coming to several countries, this bug worries me a lot. 
Sometimes aria-hidden is useful especially hiding content which is not accessible or have accessible alternatives. Having a not functional aria-hidden can confuse the screen reader user. 
Possibly it could violate the WCAG compliance of some websites, resulting in legal issues in european countries. 

TLDR: This bug can possibly violate WCAG compliance of many websites and result in legal issues.