Bug 285779 – AX: VoiceControl cannot access any content in some sites in Safari 18, but could in Safari 17

• Status: NEW
• Component: Accessibility

[Ashlee Fisher]

## Overview

I am unable to access the Bluesky web app with VoiceControl in Safari 18, but I am able to access it with Safari 17.

More specifically, the versions are:
- Safari 17.5 (19618.2.12.11.6)
- Safari 18.2 (20620.1.16.11.8)

## Steps to reproduce

- Turn on VoiceControl
- Open the VoiceControl settings
- Turn on Overlays (I have it set to Item Names)
- Open Safari
- Go to a page in the Bluesky web app (such as https://bsky.app/profile/bsky.app)

## Actual results

In Safari 18, no overlays show. Even when I know the name of an item, it can't be interacted with.

## Expected results

In Safari 17, all of the overlays show as expected with item names. I'm able to interact with elements as usual.

[Radar WebKit Bug Importer]

<rdar://problem/142712497>

[Tyler Wilcock]

Thanks for reporting this! What version of macOS do you have installed? When you went from Safari 17.5 to Safari 18.2, did you update your OS version at the same time? Or just Safari?

[Ashlee Fisher]

(In reply to Tyler Wilcock from comment #2)
> Thanks for reporting this! What version of macOS do you have installed? When
> you went from Safari 17.5 to Safari 18.2, did you update your OS version at
> the same time? Or just Safari?

I'm actually using two different macOS devices. Here are those details for each!

macOS Sequoia 15.2 (24C101)
Safari Version 18.2 (20620.1.16.11.8)

macOS Sonoma 14.5 (23F79)
Safari 17.5 (19618.2.12.11.6)

[Joshua Hori]

(In reply to Ashlee Fisher from comment #0)
> ## Overview
> 
> I am unable to access the Bluesky web app with VoiceControl in Safari 18,
> but I am able to access it with Safari 17.
> 
> More specifically, the versions are:
> - Safari 17.5 (19618.2.12.11.6)
> - Safari 18.2 (20620.1.16.11.8)
> 
> ## Steps to reproduce
> 
> - Turn on VoiceControl
> - Open the VoiceControl settings
> - Turn on Overlays (I have it set to Item Names)
> - Open Safari
> - Go to a page in the Bluesky web app (such as
> https://bsky.app/profile/bsky.app)
> 
> ## Actual results
> 
> In Safari 18, no overlays show. Even when I know the name of an item, it
> can't be interacted with.
> 
> ## Expected results
> 
> In Safari 17, all of the overlays show as expected with item names. I'm able
> to interact with elements as usual.

I was performing all functions correctly in my attempts to use Voice Control and Blusky.app. When I attempted to video record my progress is when Safari broke. 

MacOS Sequoia 15.2
Safari Version 18.2 (20620.1.16.11.8)

> - Turn on Voice Control
> - Open the Voice Control settings
> - Turn on Overlays (I have it set to Item Numbers - Item names is too much for me)
> - Open Safari
> - Go to a page in the Bluesky web app (such as https://bsky.app/profile/bsky.app)
- Start Zoom
- Share Safari via Zoom
- Stop Zoom share
- Share entire screen via Zoom
- Click on Record Session to Cloud in Zoom

Voice Over will now only interact with the Apple toolbar and the icons in the dock. It will also interact with the browser and browser tabs but will not interact with any web pages displayed in the browser. Show Grid works, but would like to see my Voice Control overlays showing over interactive elements again. 

Only Safari is affected in this way. Chromium based browsers work with Voice Control.

[Tyler Wilcock]

Thank you both for the additional details.

Joshua, you wrote:

> Voice Over will now only interact with the Apple toolbar and the icons in the dock

Did you mean to write Voice Control here? Or are you also using VoiceOver, the screen reader?

[Brent Fulgham]

This is actually tracked by:
<rdar://141458514>