Bug 220054 – AX: aria-busy is not being cleared from an element for VoiceOver

• Status: RESOLVED
• Resolution: MOVED
• Component: Accessibility

[Marco Zehe]

Steps:
1. With VoiceOver on, open this test case:
data:text/html,<div id="live" aria-live="polite" aria-busy="true"></div><script>setTimeout(() => live.textContent = 'updated', 1000); setTimeout(() => live.removeAttribute('aria-busy'), 2000);</script>
2. Explore the only div in the document.

Expected: VoiceOver should speak the text "updated" after two seconds. It should then treat the div as normal.
Actual result: VoiceOver speaks "updated" already after 1 second, and then speaks "website group is busy" when exploring the web contents with VoiceOver navigation commands.

This is the case in both Safari 14 as well as Technology Preview 117.

[Radar WebKit Bug Importer]

<rdar://problem/72542353>

[chris fleizach]

the "updated" text seems to be set after 1000ms, so having it speak after 1 second seems expected.

[chris fleizach]

I've confirmed this is a bug for VoiceOver. I've sent it to the right component.

[Marco Zehe]

Thanks, Chris! Does this include both the constant "busy" announcement on elements that had aria-busy set during their live time, but which has now been cleared, as well as the early announcement? Because from what I understand, aria-busy is supposed to suppress live region announcements until it is cleared. So I would have expected, and others have also confirmed this, that the updated text should speak after two seconds, not one.

[chris fleizach]

(In reply to [e-mail] from comment #4)
> Thanks, Chris! Does this include both the constant "busy" announcement on
> elements that had aria-busy set during their live time, but which has now
> been cleared, as well as the early announcement? Because from what I
> understand, aria-busy is supposed to suppress live region announcements
> until it is cleared. So I would have expected, and others have also
> confirmed this, that the updated text should speak after two seconds, not
> one.

ah I see. I doubt that aria live region updates are being processed after an Aria-busy is removed.

Do you have an specification you can point to that says these aria live regions should be processed after an aria-busy is removed? I didn't find one in WAI-ARIA for aria-busy

@JamesCraig?

[Marco Zehe]

The best non-spec explanation I found was this: https://www.digitala11y.com/aria-busy-state/. After aria-busy is cleared, updates should be processed. aria-busy is there to suppress live region changes that may occur as long as aria-busy is true, and then a single update should happen when aria-busy is cleared. There are also examples given.

[Canhai Chen]

I can confirm that if a live region is set to aria-busy="true", VoiceOver will defer the live region update until the region is no longer busy.

With the VoiceOver bug being fixed, in the test case above, VO will speak "updated" after 2 seconds when the busy status is removed.