Bug 236881 – AX: aria-expanded is blocking VO click events on comboboxes

• Component: Accessibility
• Status: NEW

[Aron Janecki]

Hello

I've noticed a bug specific to Safari. When using VoiceOver, I'm able to send a click event (VO+Space) to an element with the role="combobox" attribute only when it does not have the aria-expanded attribute. Once the attribute is set, regardless of its value, the click action does not work. I'm able to send the click event for comboboxes with aria-expanded in Chrome and Firefox.

See the live example of a select only combobox in the ARIA authoring practices- https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-practices-1.2/examples/combobox/combobox-select-only.html
If you remove the aria-expanded="false" from the element in the web inspector and try sending the click- it will work- the listbox popup will expand.

Some other notes:
- it seems that Safari is treating an element with role="combobox" and aria-expanded="false" as if it was expanded as it begins the announcement with the word "confirm",
- aria-expanded is a required state as per the ARIA spec (https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-1.1/#combobox) meaning that it must be present at all times
- the issue will be highly problematic once ARIA 1.2 turns into a recommendation (currently in candidate recommendation meaning it is close to become the spec) as 1.2 officially acknowledges comboboxes as select-only and text field comboboxes whereas previous versions were treating this element as if it always had to have a text box.

Alos, see the attached aria-ExpandedComboboxIssue.html file that shows the issue but displaying the system alert dialog on click.

[Radar WebKit Bug Importer]

<rdar://problem/89185255>

[Aron Janecki]

Created attachment 452636 [details]
Text case for the aria-expanded issue on elements with role="combobox"

[Aron Janecki]

*** Bug 236880 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Hi Safari Dev Team,

Could you please provide an update on when the bug with the Safari and VoiceOver combination affecting the combobox ARIA role might be fixed? This issue is impacting accessibility, and any timeline or information would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!
Peter Hudak