Bug 243650 – AX: Cannot navigate HTML with Voiceover started

• Component: Accessibility
• Status: RESOLVED MOVED

[BUR]

You open your mail and activate the attached HTML-file (in this case a Members Magazine). You can now navigate the different articles using links in the index, and at the end of each article you find a link "Return to top". 
It has been made like this for many years and has always worked. Since iOs 15.5 (as far as we can figure out) it does not work when Voiceover  has been enabled. It does work without Voiceover.
With Voiceover enabled you can click a link, and it is read to you (as normally), then double-klick to activate, the iPhone jumps to top of document.
 
This has beene tested on several iPhones from 6s to 12. All updates to iOs 15.6. We did find an old iPhone that was not updated, on iOs 15.2 it works !!!
 
I have over the last days wasted my time and the time of several Apple-supporters trying to confirm the error. 
The only thing I am trying to get form Apple, is a confirmation of the error. I am fully aware that you cannot tell me (us) when it will be fixed.
The supporters I spoke to, told me two things: 
1) They did not have the tools to confirm my/our finding. 
2) Apple will not report back to me, telling me if the error is confirmed, nor will I know when it has been fixed. "You have to try again when the next update is available". 
 
I found this site. And now I have a simple hope - and question.
Can you confirm the error in iOs 15.6 (and 15.5. I think) in relation to HTML reading using Voiceover?
 
If you can confirm: We can tell our members that they iPhones are OK, it's not them making mistakes, and a solution will come. 
 
I have tested this on our Member Magazine and several other HTML-documents, same error.

[Radar WebKit Bug Importer]

<rdar://problem/98299740>

[Tyler Wilcock]

Hi!

Thanks for the report. Just to confirm, you're saying that none of the HTML is accessible via VoiceOver? If so, does restarting VoiceOver and the app and trying again provide different results (in other words, is the issue consistent or sporadic)?  Are you opening these documents in Safari?

[BUR]

We have tried several different HTML-files. 
They have all been attachments to e-mails.
I am not sure what app actually opens an HTML file when activated from an e-mail. 
I have tried opening the files from both the build-in email-app from Apple, and from Microsoft Outlook for iOs. Even tried installing Google Chrome and switching default browser from Safari to Chrome. No combination works. 
As soon as you disable Voiceover you can navigate the document, with voiceover running you cannot. I would say: “it is consistent”.

[Tyler Wilcock]

Thanks for your additional testing! If you feel comfortable and can spare some more time, it would be helpful to know if you can reproduce this issue on the latest iOS 16 beta.

https://beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/guide

[BUR]

Just installed iOs 16.0 (20A5339d)
It still does not work. Navigating a HTML-document does not work when Voiceover is "on".

I am still hoping that someone would verify the problem, just so that we know the problem is not ours, but a bug in iOs.

Then we can relax and wait for a bug-fix, properly in the final iOs 16.

[BUR]

Just installed new beta iOs 16.0 (20A5349b)
It still does not work. Navigating a HTML-document does not work when Voiceover is "on". Works without Voiceover.

I am still hoping that someone would verify the problem, just so that we know the problem is not ours, but a bug in iOs.

Then we can relax and wait for a bug-fix, properly in the final iOs 16.

[Tyler Wilcock]

Thanks for the continued testing. I haven't been able to reproduce this but it does seem really important, so I think the next best step would be to file a Feedback via Feedback Assistant. This Feedback gives us additional diagnostics that will be helpful in finding the issue.

In this Feedback, please note the time (or times) you reproduced this bug so we can correlate those times with diagnostics.

If possible, it would be helpful to attach any of the HTML files you've reproduced the issue with to the Feedback. Also, attaching a screen recording of the issue to the Feedback would be really useful.

https://developer.apple.com/bug-reporting/

[BUR]

Created attachment 461686 [details]
Members Magazine

[BUR]

I will try the Bug-Report-App.
In the meantime, I have attached n issue of our Members Magazine. 
It is send to our blind members as an attachment to an e-mail.
When we open it, we can navigate it using the index in the start of the document. When Voiceover is turned on, we cannot. When activating a link I can visually see the HTML-reader jumping to the paragraph, but it immediately jumps back to the headline.

[BUR]

Just to clarify. I am an IT-technician working for the Danish Association of the Blind.
Everyone I have spoken to reports the same: It used to work; now it does not. I just hope that someone at Apple will recognize the error. If so, we would know that it is not us, who have some sort of error in the HTML. And we could relax and just wait for a bug-fix update.
I will now attach a different HTML with a completely different context. Just to show that the Members Magazine id not the problem.

[BUR]

Created attachment 461687 [details]
A PC-Audit file

Another HTML files that we can not navigate using Voice Over

[Tyler Wilcock]

I'm sorry, I believe I misunderstood your bug — I thought you were saying all HTML was completely unnavigable with VoiceOver. In the document you have attached, I can reproduce an issue where when I have VoiceOver active and click on a link, focus jumps to the top rather than to the middle of the document as is intended.

[BUR]

Sorry for the misunderstanding. And a large THANK YOU for the part of "I can reproduce an issue where when I have VoiceOver active ...". It has taken me three weeks to get someone to acknowledge the error :-)
We are now looking forward and hoping for a bugfix.

[BUR]

Still testing on different iPhones. Updating when they arrive. Trying both iOs 16beta (16.0 20A362) and iOs 15.7. Still it does not work. 
Any idea to when Apple engineers will fix this problem.
Sorry to repeat myself: Many blind people are looking forward to a solution so that they again can benefit from the technology in their phones that is supposed to work, but does not.

[Tyler Wilcock]

(In reply to BUR from comment #14)
> Still testing on different iPhones. Updating when they arrive. Trying both
> iOs 16beta (16.0 20A362) and iOs 15.7. Still it does not work. 
> Any idea to when Apple engineers will fix this problem.
> Sorry to repeat myself: Many blind people are looking forward to a solution
> so that they again can benefit from the technology in their phones that is
> supposed to work, but does not.
We can't provide any specific timeline, but a fix is in progress. Thanks for your patience!

[BUR]

Some time ago a 16.xx.xx (forgot) Beta was released. The bug was fixed!!!
Therefor I hoped it would be included in the newest official release. 
However, unfortunately it was not in the newly released 16.1
Still waiting...

[Brent Fulgham]

The bug was in an outside component, so moving this to RESOLVE | MOVED.

We believe this bug fix was shipped in iOS 16.1 and newer.