VO may not read alerts

[phet-steele]

This was NOT occurring in macOS 10.12.6 + Safari 10.1.2. It IS occurring in macOS 10.13.3 + Safari 11.0.3.

Go here: https://www.colorado.edu/physics/phet/dev/html/resistance-in-a-wire/1.5.0-dev.1/phet/resistance-in-a-wire_a11y_view.html

1. With VO enabled, tab into the sim and press the Reset All button. Verify you hear "Sim screen restarted..."
2. Tab out of the sim (press tab three more times from the Reset All button), then shift + tab back to the Reset All button
3. Press the Reset All button and wait to listen for "Sim screen restarted..."

On my device, I never hear the alert in step 3. In fact, I no longer hear any alerts (ie. I no longer hear "As letter grows, other letter grows..."). Something about exiting the sim iframe then re-entering is not letting alerts be spoken by my VO.

You can try the above procedure at https://jsfiddle.net/wLzu63s8/24/ and you will not reproduce the issue (at least I can't). So likely this is a problem on our side @jessegreenberg?

Now when it comes to the proper sim link (https://www.colorado.edu/physics/phet/dev/html/resistance-in-a-wire/1.5.0-dev.1/phet/resistance-in-a-wire_en_phet.html), a trigger for this issue is harder to find. This issue DOES happen without being in an iframe, but again the trigger is unclear. I could investigate more, but I would like @jessegreenberg to give it a shot as well.

For phetsims/QA/issues/92.

[terracoda]

For the record, my system is macOS 10.13.3 + Safari 11.0.3, and I do indeed experience this problem often. I do not recall experiencing the problem (at least not frequently) before upgrading.

[jessegreenberg]

Great to know, thanks @terracoda.

[jessegreenberg]

I can get this bug to happen consistently in the main sim in macOS 10.13.3 Safari 11.0.3 by switching browser tabs. If I leave the sim browser tab and then return to it, all aria-live alerts stop. Reloading the sim fixes the problem. If I switch applications and then come back to Safari, alerts still work.

I have not been able to reproduce the case where alerts stop happening without switching tabs. @phet-steele does this make sense or were you able to break alerts without leaving the sim tab?

[phet-steele]

@phet-steele does this make sense or were you able to break alerts without leaving the sim tab?

@jessegreenberg makes a whole lot of sense. Can reproduce on my end, thanks!

[jessegreenberg]

Thanks @phet-steele, in that case we have verified that this is a VoiceOver bug. In http://jsfiddle.net/wLzu63s8/55/ I tried a few hacky workarounds to try to get around this:

• hiding/unhiding alert elements when tab visibility changed with and without delay.
• removing/adding alert elements when tab visibility changed with and without delay.
• adding aria-relevant="additions" and aria-relevant="text"

None of these worked, so I think the next step is to file a bug report to Apple. Closing this issue.

[terracoda]

@jessegreenberg, thanks for testing out the other aria-live attributes.