Items with tabindex="0" are silent in JAWS 2021 with FireFox

[rskrzypczynski]

Summary

Items with tabindex="0" and no role are silent in JAWS 2021 with FireFox

Expected result

Items with tabindex="0" should be announced by screen reader

Actual result

Items with tabindex="0" and no role are silent in JAWS 2021 but works as expected in 2020, and the issue is only for FF (Versions 83 and 88), other browsers are OK

Example

1. Go to https://jsfiddle.net/ojefy8xq/1/

Additional Information

Element with tabindex="0" and role="gridcell" works properly

JAWS version and build number

2021.2103.174

Operating System and version

Windows 10 64bit

Browser and version:

Tested on FireFox 88 & 83

[hrvojegolcic]

I can also confirm there is a difference between JAWS 2020 and 2021. The new version is silent in FF when I TAB into the element. It only work if it has role=button or, as you said role="gridcell"

[JAWS-test]

This appears to be a Firefox bug and not one from JAWS. The span element with tabindex does not have a name in Firefox. It may not be a Firefox bug because the Accname specification does not provide a name for span elements (see w3c/accname#120). Chrome behaves the same way when the span has no tabindex. Only with tabindex Chrome considers the element relevant and assigns a name.

[JAWS-test]

The question would be why a span should get the focus. In web pages only interactive elements should get the focus. And interactive elements need a role. Once the element has a role, the name should also be output correctly

[hrvojegolcic]

There is definitely something off with JAWS 2021 specifically, because with JAWS 2020 the issue does not occur in the very same Firefox browser. For that matter it also does not occur with other browsers (or even other screen readers).
So clearly the specific combination of FF+JAWS 2021 is broken.

Going further into the topic I have made another jsfiddle example as following;

• TABINDEX
• TABINDEX + IMG ROLE + ARIA LABEL
• TABINDEX + ROLE NONE + ARIA LABEL
• TABINDEX + BUTTON
• TABINDEX + GRIDCELL

In the example even the elements that have DO HAVE the "name" in Firefox, such as those with aria-label, are still silent when focused in JAWS 2021, unlike JAWS 2020 where it works for all.

About interactive elements not having a role imo is not the point of discussion here. While it can be discussed it's wrong surely there are many occurrences across the Web where tabindex is used, which are now inaccessible since JAWS 2021. Personally I could think of cases where one uses tabindex but does not want to use a button or gridcell role, clearly because the item is not a button, and so far there is yet no other appropriate role. If this is not fixed I see developers then using gridcell role, as a workaround, which is even worse. To summarize, when item is made focusable by setting tabindex surely the JAWS should not be silent when navigated there, especially if it works in other browsers.

[JAWS-test]

@hrvojegolcic Thank you for the second example. Now I'm completely convinced it's a JAWS bug, because the output doesn't happen even when Firefox submits a name to the Accessibility API. This was not the case with the first example, so I was leaning towards it being fixed by Firefox, even if it worked in JAWS 2020, because screen readers should be able to rely on the information in the API.

[JAWS-test]

@rskrzypczynski Maybe you can delete the "no role" in the issue title, because the problem also occurs with elements that have a role (e.g. graphics).

[JAWS-test]

Among others, the following HTML elements and ARIA roles have no output at all in Firefox + JAWS 2021 when navigating with the tab key:

• HTML: div, span, p, li, strong, sub, table, a (without href), img (with and without alt)
• ARIA: alert, application, banner, blockquote, cell, code, definition, deletion, document, form, generic, grid, group (only without label), img (only without label), log, math, meter, none, paragraph, presentation, radiogroup (only without label), region, row, scrollbar, search, status, strong, subscript, tablist (only without label), tabpanel, table, time, timer, tooltip

[juliemoynatPro]

I have the same problem with p or div elements with a tabindex="-1" which receive the focus via JavaScript.
The problem is observed with JAWS 2021 and 2022 + Firefox or Chrome. There is no problem with JAWS 2020 and it's fixed in JAWS 2023.