aria-allowed-role with custom autocomplete (combobox + listbox, aria 1.0 vs aria 1.1) (PR #1118)

[georgiee]

An error newly introduced during our housekeeping. axe-core was upgraded from 3.0.3 to 3.1.1.

The following markup got identified as invalid (shorten)

"<input aria-autocomplete="list" aria-label="some label" autocomplete="off"  role="combobox" type="text" aria-expanded="true" aria-owns="autocomplete-0">"

<!-- somewhere else-->
<div id='autocomplete-0'>[...]</div>

Report from CLI looks like this (shorten):

id:"aria-allowed-role",
impact: "minor",
helpUrl: "https://dequeuniversity.com/rules/axe/3.1/aria-allowed-role?application=axeAPI",
nodes: [{
  failureSummary: "Fix any of the following: role combobox  is not allowed for given element",
  html: '...',
  impact: "minor"
}]

The linked help resource by axe cli is the following:
https://dequeuniversity.com/rules/axe/3.1/aria-allowed-role?application=axeAPI

More helping is this URL:
https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-1.1/#combobox

So the problem is the role combobox directly on the input. With aria 1.1 it must be on the parent while the text should get the role textbox or searchbox.

The linked w3.org document also says the following.

The ARIA 1.0 specification describes a combobox pattern where a text input element has the combobox role and owns a listbox element. User agents, assistive technologies, and conformance checkers SHOULD continue to support the ARIA 1.0 pattern so that existing implementations of the ARIA 1.0 pattern remain functional.

Should Axe continue reporting it as minor, allow me to change the aria version with the configuration (couldn't find this option yet) or is it expected just to disable it like shown in the following workaround?

Workaround:

axe.configure({
      rules: [
        {
          id: 'aria-allowed-role',
          enabled: false
        }
      ]
});

Thanks for reading.

[WilcoFiers]

Thanks for reporting. This does seem to be incorrect. Combobox is an allowed role on input[type=text]. @JKODU can you go through this again and verify what we missed for this?

[georgiee]

From https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-1.1/#combobox

combobox (role)
Authors MUST ensure an element with role combobox contains or owns a text input element with role textbox or searchbox and that the text input has aria-multiline set to false.

I understand it like combobox should be assigned to the parent (following aria 1.1). On the other hand aria 1.0 with its legacy custombox allowed it on the input itself.

See here:
https://www.w3.org/TR/2018/WD-wai-aria-practices-1.2-20180719/examples/combobox/aria1.0pattern/combobox-autocomplete-none.html#rps_label_textbox

Column 'usage' says:

Note: The primary difference between the ARIA 1.0 pattern and the ARIA 1.1 pattern is the placement of the combobox role.

[jeeyyy]

@georgiee - Thanks for the additional information.

@WilcoFiers - I have narrowed down the issue. The specs around the 'combobox' role are quite different between ARIA1.0 and 1.1. I'm looking at the best way to fit in backwards compatibility here.

Will link you both in the PR.

[jeeyyy]

PR - #1118

[jeeyyy]

PR has been merged. Closing issue.