1886995 - "Space" Key on Menulist Fails to Open Menupopup

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 611402

(Toolkit :: UI Widgets, defect)

Description

[I_Like_Programming]

Attachment: attachment

Affected Version:

• Firefox 123.0.1 (64-bit)

Affected Platforms:

• MacOS 14.1 (23B2073)

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Go to "about:preferences#home"
2. Press "Tab" key to focus on "Firefox Home (Default)"
3. Press "Enter" to attempt to expand the menu.

Actual Results:

• No response from the "Enter" key; the menu does not expand.
• Conversely, clicking with the mouse successfully reveals the dropdown menu.

Expected Results:

• Pressing "Enter" at Step 3 should trigger the dropdown expansion.

Comment 1

[Raluca Popovici, Desktop QA]

I was able to reproduce this issue on my machine macOS 13.2.1 using Fx 125.0b6, Fx 124.0 and the latest Nightly 126.0a1. I can't trigger the dropdown expansion with "Enter" key only if I use down arrow key.

Comment 2

[Cieara Meador [:cmkm] ⛔️ (away through EOY)]

Per WebAIM and W3C's documentation, and based on the behavior of the HTML <select> element (MDN), I don't think Enter should expand this <menulist> element, so I believe the current behavior is correct in that regard. The down arrow works correctly to activate the popup and show the available options.

However, the Space key should activate this element, and Space is currently not working for me in this instance--the page scrolls instead, as if the menulist wasn't focused. We might consider fixing that. Would you mind verifying this :ayeddi?

Comment 3

[Jared Hirsch [:jhirsch] (he/him) (Needinfo please)]

Guessing at a priority/severity; feel free to adjust if this is a higher severity a11y bug

Comment 4

[Anna Yeddi [:ayeddi]]

(In reply to Cieara Meador [:cmkm] (she/her) from comment #2)

Per WebAIM and W3C's documentation, and based on the behavior of the HTML <select> element (MDN), I don't think Enter should expand this <menulist> element, so I believe the current behavior is correct in that regard. The down arrow works correctly to activate the popup and show the available options.

However, the Space key should activate this element, and Space is currently not working for me in this instance--the page scrolls instead, as if the menulist wasn't focused. We might consider fixing that. Would you mind verifying this :ayeddi?

I've got the same results as you described, :Cieara. Tested with today's Nightly on macOS Sonoma 14.3.1 (23D60). It seems to be a component-wide issue with the XUL <menulist> across the UI, for example:

1. In settings UI > General > Font > Size menulist
2. In Bookmarks doorhanger on Location menulist

This is definitely a bug and would be a11y-severity=S3 if we're changing this ticket or opening a new one to address the Space key behavior of the <menulist> component.

Comment 5

[Anna Yeddi [:ayeddi]]

Tested on Win11 and the issue with Space key on <menulist> is the same. Moving it to the Toolkit > UI Widgets, since it seems to be an issue with the keypress event handling of the Menulist widget.

Updated STR:

1. Go to about:preferences#home
2. Press Tab key to focus on Firefox Home (Default)
3. Press Space to attempt to expand the menupopup and observe the behavior
4. Alternatively, Press cmd/ctrl+D to bookmark the page. Confirm the Add Bookmark panel is opened
5. Navigate to the Bookmark panel and focus Location combobox
6. Press Space to attempt to expand the menupopup and observe the behavior

Actual Results:

1. On the Settings UI, the page scrolls down when the Space is pressed; the menupopup does not open.
2. On the Bookmarks bar, nothing happens; the menupopup does not open.

Expected Results:

1. Pressing Space key at Steps 3 and 6 opens the menupopup (similarly to what Down Arrow does, when the combobox is opened).

Note: the behavior is as expected with the web content, i.e. on MDN <select> playground, WAI Tutorial, as well as on ARIA Combobox design pattern

Comment 6

[Mark Striemer [:mstriemer]]

Duping to bug 611402 which I moved to UI Widgets. This appears to have been the case for at least 15 years