Bug 254591 – AX: VoiceOver reads out the VO highlighted item when interacting with radios buttons using a mouse

• Status: NEW
• Component: Accessibility

[Kimberly Grey]

Tested in Safari 16.3 on macOS 13.2.1.

1. Open the attached file in Safari.
2. Activate VoiceOver.
3. Using the keyboard, navigate to and check the first radio button in the group ("Huey"). VO's focus ring should surround the "Huey" radio button. VO should announce "Huey, selected, radio button, 1 of 3."
4. Using the mouse, click on the second radio button ("Dewey") or its label.

Expected: 
- "Dewey" should become checked. 
- VO's outline should move to "Dewey".
- VO should announce "Dewey, selected, radio button, 2 of 3." 

Actual: 
- "Dewey" becomes checked.
- VO's outline stays on "Huey".
- VO announces "Huey, radio button, 1 of 3."

5. Use VoiceOver's Ctrl + Opt + Space keyboard command to check the current radio button.

Expected:
- "Dewey" should remain checked.
- VO's outline should stay on "Dewey".
- VO should announce "Dewey, selected, radio button, 2 of 3." 

Actual: 
- "Huey" becomes checked.
- VO's outline stays on "Huey".
- VO announces "Huey, selected, radio button, 1 of 3."



It appears as though clicking on other radio buttons in a group will check those buttons, but VoiceOver does not recognise this has happened or is intent on not moving its 'focus' to the clicked item. This is unexpected, as clicking on a text node or form element when VoiceOver is active will usually move VO's 'focus' to that item. 

The same situation occurs when interacting with the radio buttons in any order (e.g. checking "Louie" and subsequently clicking on either "Huey" or "Dewey" results in VO still reading out "Louie").

I've managed to reproduce this on radio buttons across a variety of websites. It does not seem to be constrained to any particular implementation. 

I encountered a similar issue with checkboxes. If a checkbox is currently 'focused' by VO, interactions with other checkboxes will not move that focus and VO will not announce that the clicked checkbox has been checked. However, unlike radio buttons, VO doesn't announce anything at all (it doesn't repeat the checked option, as it does with radio buttons).

[Radar WebKit Bug Importer]

<rdar://problem/107318649>

[Kimberly Grey]

Created attachment 465633 [details]
Reduced radio button example