2031399 - [a11y] Focus not returned after dismissing dialog

Status: ASSIGNED

(Enterprise Products :: Firefox, defect)

Description

[Claire Joeckel]

Steps to reproduce:

Impacted Section/Element

Sign-Out Confirmation dialog, About Firefox Enterprise dialog

Steps to Reproduce

For the Sign-Out Confirmation dialog, while using a screen reader, activate the "Firefox Enterprise" button. In the resulting "Company Menu" dropdown, activate the "Sign out…" button. In the resulting Sign-Out Confirmation modal dialog, dismiss the dialog using either the "Close" buttons or the Esc key. For the About Firefox Enterprise dialog, while using a screen reader, activate the "Firefox Enterprise Open Application Menu” button. In the resulting "Application Menu" dropdown, activate the "Help" button. In the resulting "Firefox Help" submenu, activate the "About Firefox" button. In the resulting About Firefox Enterprise modal dialog, dismiss the dialog using either the "Close" button or the Esc key.

Actual results:

Focus is not returned and resets to the top of the browser controls.

Expected results:

For the Sign-Out Confirmation dialog, when the dialog closes, focus returns to the button that opened the dialog. Because the button that opened the dialog is in the "Company Menu" dropdown that closed, the focus returns to the "Firefox Enterprise" button that opened the "Company Menu" dropdown. For the About Firefox Enterprise dialog, when the dialog closes, focus returns to the button that opened the dialog. Because the button that opened the dialog is in the "Application Menu" dropdown that closed, the focus returns to the "Firefox Enterprise Open Application Menu" button that opened the "Application Menu" dropdown.

User Impact

The loss of focus can cause significant difficulty for screen reader and keyboard users, confusing them and forcing them to navigate back to their place.

WCAG 2.2 References

2.1.1 Keyboard, 2.4.3 Focus Order

Recommendations

For the Sign-Out Confirmation dialog, when the dialog closes, focus should return to the button that opened the dialog. Because the button that opened the dialog is in the "Company Menu" dropdown that closed, the focus should return to the "Firefox Enterprise" button that opened the "Company Menu" dropdown. For the About Firefox Enterprise dialog, when the dialog closes, focus should return to the button that opened the dialog. Because the button that opened the dialog is in the "Application Menu" dropdown that closed, the focus should return to the "Firefox Enterprise Open Application Menu" button that opened the "Application Menu" dropdown.

Testing Environment

Any

Assistive Technology Used

Any

Further Reference

https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Understanding/focus-order.html

Severity

2-Significant

Comment 1

[James Teh [:Jamie]]

This is a borderline s2, since it's very confusing for users, but it could also be argued there is a workaround, just a very annoying one. I'm triaging as s3 for now, but this could be upgraded to an s2 if it is felt that this particular case causes significant friction for users.

Comment 2

[BMO Github Automation]

Attachment: [mozilla/enterprise-firefox] Bug 2031399 - Restore focus to badge button when signout dialog is dismissed (#816)

Comment 3

[Josh Porter [:jporter]]

I have a fix written for the Enterprise button signout and cancel focus issue to return focus to the Enterprise button when cancelling.

However, I was looking into the other issue mentioned regarding the "Application Menu" dropdown and the "About Firefox Enterprise" dialog and am unable to reproduce this one. What OS was used, and has this behavior been compared with Nightly or a non-Enterprise release? I tested on Windows and it returned focus to the menu button, and on MacOS the location is in the OS topbar instead of the application menu.

Comment 4

[Claire Joeckel]

It was tested in Windows 11, and the behavior was not compared to Nightly or a non-Enterprise release. If the focus is returning to the element that opened the dialog, then that would resolve this issue.

Comment 5

[Janika Neuberger [:janika]]

Regarding the focus not being restored to the previously focused toolbar button after a dialog is cancelled - I double-checked and this also reproduces in nightly and release in m-c.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Keyboard-focus the FxA toolbar button.
2. Press Cmd+Q to open the "quit with N tabs" confirmation dialog.
3. Cancel the dialog.

Expected: focus returns to the FxA toolbar button.

Actual: focus is not returned to the FxA toolbar button.

This suggests the issue is in the shared dialog machinery (gDialogBox) rather than something specific to the enterprise signout components. In this case I'd suggest fixing this in m-c rather than only for the enterprise signout flow.

:ayeddi, I couldn't find an existing bug tracking focus restoration on dialog cancel - do you know of one, or should we file it?

Comment 6

[❌ Anna Yeddi [:ayeddi] ❌ On leave until 2027-01-04]

(In reply to Janika Neuberger [:janika] from comment #5)

:ayeddi, I couldn't find an existing bug tracking focus restoration on dialog cancel - do you know of one, or should we file it?

Thank you for checking for it - I cannot find it too, so please do file the bug (and add access keyword). This would be access-S3 bug. Thank you in advance!

Comment 7

[Josh Porter [:jporter]]

(In reply to Anna Yeddi [:ayeddi] from comment #6)

(In reply to Janika Neuberger [:janika] from comment #5)

:ayeddi, I couldn't find an existing bug tracking focus restoration on dialog cancel - do you know of one, or should we file it?

Thank you for checking for it - I cannot find it too, so please do file the bug (and add access keyword). This would be access-S3 bug. Thank you in advance!

Thank you :janika for digging into this bug some more! I couldn't find any good examples of "dialog opened from a panel" on my first pass. It makes sense to find a more generic fix for this than a tailored solution for the Enterprise toolbar button/panel.

I've gone ahead and filed the new bug with the relevant details from this bug, and found another reproducible example with Menu -> Exit

Comment 8

[Claire Joeckel]

Unresolved.

Comment 9

[Claire Joeckel]

Attachment: Screenshot 2026-06-02 164955.png

Comment 10

[Gian-Carlo Pascutto [:gcp]]

This depends on an upstream bug that's S3-Accessibility there, we'll have to lower on our side.