“Radio Group Example Using aria-activedescendant” does not work in iOS/VoiceOver

[yatil]

This demo seems to not work in iOS/VoiceOver. Radio buttons can be selected but not pressed using the space key or by moving the selection with the left/right arrow keys. Developers implement these code examples (yes, despite the warning) instead of just using the proper HTML which gives them everything that this demo does for free, and more.

Please at least provide examples that work.

[JAWS-test]

This is probably a bug of iOS/VoiceOver. The example itself works correctly. Please file a ticket at iOS/VoiceOver.

[css-meeting-bot]

The ARIA Authoring Practices (APG) Task Force just discussed “Radio Group Example Using aria-activedescendant” does not work in iOS/VoiceOver.

The full IRC log of that discussion

<Matt_King> TOPIC: “Radio Group Example Using aria-activedescendant” does not work in iOS/VoiceOver
<Matt_King> github: https://github.com//issues/2475
<CurtBellew> Matt_King: Guessing this is with quicknav turned off while using the arrow keys and space bar ?
<CurtBellew> Matt_King: It's possible that IOS is not supporting this. Bryan Garaventa , can you please test this?
<CurtBellew> Bryan: Yes. I don't use a keyboard on IOS. When you use the arrow keys it just navigates through the options rather than selecting the radio buttons
<CurtBellew> Bryan: Previous is in reference to cases where you use a bluetooth keyboard with iOS.
<CurtBellew> Bryan: In my testing it doesn't seem like the active descendant will function in this scenario
<CurtBellew> Matt_King: So there is some question as to whether or not javascript can ever receive an arrow key in this scenario
<CurtBellew> Bryan: they work in some cases. There were some cases added to the slider role for instance

[accdc]

Hi,
As requested I have done some extensive testing with an iPhone running iOS16 with an external bluetooth keyboard.

As I mentioned during the meeting, it is impossible for the arrow keys to control the selection of a radio button group on iOS in the same manner as a Windows machine plus keyboard.

This is actually not an issue with the ARIA radio button group example, but rather is simply the way that iOS handles external keyboards.

For example, you can reproduce the same behavior here using native radio buttons.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input/radio#try_it

It is impossible here to to change the checked state of any radio button with the arrow keys on native radios as well.

Voiceover will enter edit mode when you double tap on a text input field, and then you can use the arrow keys as expected to move the cursor which is similar to Windows, however that only works like this on edit fields and not on any other interactive control type such as radios, checkboxes, sliders, trees, listboxes, grids, tabs, nor anything else.