[JAWS, IE11] JAWS is reading the hidden elements in the Check For Updates modal

[phet-steele]

In the "check for updates" dialogue accessed via the PhET Menu, JAWS reads all possible strings, not just the one presented. This includes the hidden strings, so if the dialogue says "Simulation is up to date", JAWS will read that but continue by saying the other possibilities for the dialogue like "Unable to check for updates" and "Get Update..", etc..

This was tested with JAWS and WIN 10 + IE11.

For phetsims/tasks/issues/813.
URL: http://www.colorado.edu/physics/phet/dev/html/john-travoltage/1.3.0-dev.20/john-travoltage_en.html
Version: 1.3.0-dev.20 2017-04-05 17:45:45 UTC
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Dependencies JSON: {"assert":{"sha":"a707328c","branch":"master"},"axon":{"sha":"f7beced2","branch":"master"},"babel":{"sha":"349f2b73","branch":"master"},"brand":{"sha":"054ca5c3","branch":"master"},"chipper":{"sha":"7c6e001f","branch":"master"},"dot":{"sha":"569939e1","branch":"master"},"john-travoltage":{"sha":"d3c5efa2","branch":"master"},"joist":{"sha":"d11d93da","branch":"master"},"kite":{"sha":"81166ce9","branch":"master"},"phet-core":{"sha":"c5c6c2a8","branch":"master"},"phetcommon":{"sha":"85801e7b","branch":"master"},"query-string-machine":{"sha":"d8a4ff18","branch":"master"},"scenery":{"sha":"e5fadaaf","branch":"master"},"scenery-phet":{"sha":"2cc12884","branch":"master"},"sherpa":{"sha":"ad343771","branch":"master"},"sun":{"sha":"cf75fc6d","branch":"master"},"tandem":{"sha":"cc7876d0","branch":"master"},"vibe":{"sha":"549baf54","branch":"master"}}

[jessegreenberg]

The content cant be found with the virtual cursor, but it is being read when the Dialog is first opened.

[jessegreenberg]

My guess is that JAWS is reading the 'aria-describedby' content in the Dialog, even though that content is hidden. I wonder if it will do that for ALL 'aria-describedby' content, or just the content that is in a dialog?

JSFiddle incoming...

[jessegreenberg]

Test: https://jsfiddle.net/8q933y29/1/

NVDA doesn't read the hidden 'aria-describedby'.

[jessegreenberg]

Neither does JAWS in IE11.

[jessegreenberg]

Here is a JSFiddle with an example 'dialog' with hidden content that is created dynamically.
https://jsfiddle.net/8q933y29/6/

[jessegreenberg]

In the above example, JAWS will read the hidden content in IE11 when the dialog is open.

[jessegreenberg]

This definitely seems like a JAWS + IE bug. The only workaround I can think of right now is to totally remove the HTML content associated with the updates from the DOM instead of using hidden.

This doesn't happen in JAWS + Chrome or JAWS + Firefox.

[jessegreenberg]

Maybe we can try display:none?

[jessegreenberg]

Doesn't seem to work, in https://jsfiddle.net/8q933y29/8/,

JAWS is reading this element:

<p aria-hidden="true" style="display: none;" hidden>This is a hidden description.  Will AT find me?</p>

[emily-phet]

@jessegreenberg If this is a JAWS + IE bug, and it seems to only impact this dialog, I think we should make note of this going forward (in case other situations like this arise), let JAWS know, and not try to find a workaround for now.

[jessegreenberg]

The impact of this bug is that in the About Dialog and the Updates dialog, the user will hear

"Checking for updates"
"Simulation is up to date"
"Update available, your version is..."
"Get updates, button"
"No thanks, button"
"Unable to check for updates."
"Close button"

Event though the only thing that is visible is "Simulation is up to date." and "Close button".

@emily-phet I just want to make sure that is OK, can you verify?

[emily-phet]

@jessegreenberg If this will likely take more than an hour or so to find a workaround, I think we need ask JAWS to address this, and continue with publishing John Travoltage with this issue. Once we hear back from JAWS about their interest/timeline for addressing this issue, we can discuss again.

[jessegreenberg]

Ok, thanks @emily-phet!

[jobara]

@jessegreenberg it seems that aria-describedby and aria-labelledby will still use the content of a hidden element. https://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2015/05/short-note-on-aria-labelledby-and-aria-describedby/

[jessegreenberg]

That is really good to know, thanks @jobara! In that case this is a feature, not a bug, and JAWS is the one that follows specification. NVDA and VO are buggy for dynamic aria-describedby content with the hidden attribute. I think that means the current implementation is wrong and needs to be fixed to follow specification.

http://rawgit.com/w3c/aria/master/accname-aam/accname-aam.html#details-id-0

By default, assistive technologies do not relay hidden information, but an author can explicitly override that and include hidden text as part of the accessible name or accessible description by using aria-labelledby or aria-describedby.

[jessegreenberg]

This is fixed with the above commits, Scenery now supports removing subtrees of accessible content under a display object from the DOM.