Bug 260835 – AX: aria-description not exposed directly to VO users

• Component: Accessibility
• Status: RESOLVED MOVED

[Diane Ko]

This is the macOS version of https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=259156, which was filed to be iOS specific.

Using macOS Venture 13.4 and Safari 16.5 with VoiceOver on a site that uses aria-description (Example: https://a11ysupport.io/tests/html/aria/aria-description.html) results in the description not getting read out. For the text field, "more content available" is read out rather than the description. The text content doesn't read the description, nor does it provide context that there is a description.

I would expect that aria-description would have the same readout behavior as aria-describedby, in a similar way that aria-label has the same readout behavior as aria-labelledby.

[Radar WebKit Bug Importer]

<rdar://problem/114596381>

[Joe Watkins]

This is a bug on Mac OS 14 Sonoma and Safari 17 as well. The Accessible Description should automatically announce. Many web forms rely on aria-describedby to programmatically associate form field helper text and error text. VO users should not have to dig around for this important content.

Any updates on a fix?

[Joe Watkins]

This may only be an issue with Text Inputs as I'm not able to replicate the issue with other form fields e.g. Radio, Select, Button, Checkbox

[Joe Watkins]

Here is a reduced test:
https://cdpn.io/pen/debug/poqQRQa/b71a4e4bdedd09281a6b5380f2014483

Following up on this, "more content available" is not even announced by VO in MacOS 14 Sonoma and Safari 17. The Accessible Description is not announced at all regardless of verbosity settings.

VO users can use "Control + Option + Command + /" to access this content but there is no indication the description is available to them.  

Accessible Description as computed in Chrome:
https://app.screencast.com/yRlegE5yXdtiR

[Adrian Roselli]

This issue was filed to address the bug in `aria-description`.

The latest comments on this issue are talking about `aria-describedby` in Safari 17.

However, they may be related since it looks like Safari 17 aligned exposure of the two and chose the more verbose one:

> Fixed aria-describedby to be equivalent to aria-description and override it when both are present. (108386295)

Ref: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/safari-release-notes/safari-17-release-notes

[Joe Watkins]

Tnx Adrian! I think you are onto something there with that release note. Nice find!

[Adrian Roselli]

I filed a new issue specifically for `aria-described by`:
https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=262895

[chris fleizach]

This is a macOS VoiceOver implementation issue, so needs to be fixed in that project. Going to handle the bug there rather than through bugzilla

[Expoth87]

(In reply to Diane Ko from comment #0)
> This is the macOS version of https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=259156,
> which was filed to be iOS specific.
> 
> Using macOS Venture 13.4 and Safari 16.5 with VoiceOver on a site that uses
> aria-description (Example:
> https://a11ysupport.io/tests/html/aria/aria-description.html https://blockblastonline.com) results in the
> description not getting read out. For the text field, "more content
> available" is read out rather than the description. The text content doesn't
> read the description, nor does it provide context that there is a
> description.
> 
> I would expect that aria-description would have the same readout behavior as
> aria-describedby, in a similar way that aria-label has the same readout
> behavior as aria-labelledby.

I'm using VoiceOver on macOS Venture 13.4 with Safari 16.5 and I'm experiencing the same issue.  When I visit that accessibility test page,  the "more content available" announcement for the text field doesn't tell the whole story.  I expect the description to be read out loud as well, just like it would be with aria-labelledby.  It seems like aria-description isn't working as intended in Safari on macOS

[altman0369]

(In reply to Diane Ko from comment #0)
> This is the macOS version of https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=259156,
> which was filed to be iOS specific.
> 
> Using macOS Venture 13.4 and Safari 16.5 with VoiceOver on a site that uses
> aria-description (Example:
> https://a11ysupport.io/tests/html/aria/aria-description.html  
https://sprunkisinneredition.net/
https://abgerny.net/
https://colorbox-mustard.com/
https://sprunkiincredibox.net/
https://webfishing.pro/
https://sprunkilove.com/ ) results in the
> description not getting read out. For the text field, "more content
> available" is read out rather than the description. The text content doesn't
> read the description, nor does it provide context that there is a
> description.
> 
> I would expect that aria-description would have the same readout behavior as
> aria-describedby, in a similar way that aria-label has the same readout
> behavior as aria-labelledby.


I'm using VoiceOver on macOS Venture 13.4 with Safari 16.5 and I'm experiencing the same issue.  When I visit that accessibility test page,  the "more content available" announcement for the text field doesn't tell the whole story.  I expect the description to be read out loud as well, just like it would be with aria-labelledby.  It seems like aria-description isn't working as intended in Safari on macOS