Manual Test Cases for ARIA Activedescendant Duplicate IDs - Test 1438
Test 1438: One or more elements, not intentionally hidden in the DOM and available to assistive technologies, has an aria-activedescendant attribute that is set to a duplicate id.
Elements with aria-activedescendant are outlined in purple. Duplicate IDs are highlighted in red, unique IDs in green.
Test Logic:
Tests for elements with aria-activedescendant attribute pointing to IDs that appear multiple times in the DOM
Elements must not be intentionally hidden (display:none, visibility:hidden, aria-hidden="true")
Elements must be available to assistive technologies
Empty aria-activedescendant values are ignored
The attribute can contain multiple space-separated IDs - fails if any referenced ID is duplicated
Common Use Cases:
Comboboxes managing focus on listbox options
Listboxes indicating the currently focused option
Grids indicating the currently focused cell
Trees indicating the currently focused node
Menus indicating the currently focused menu item
Custom controls managing focus on descendant elements
Purpose:
aria-activedescendant is used in composite widgets to indicate which descendant element has focus while the container maintains DOM focus. This allows keyboard navigation without moving actual DOM focus.
N/A Tests - Should Not Be Tested
Element without aria-activedescendant attribute
Option 1
Elements without aria-activedescendant are not tested
Element with empty aria-activedescendant attribute
Empty aria-activedescendant values are ignored
Hidden element with aria-activedescendant (display:none)
Option 1
Option 2
Hidden elements are excluded from testing
Hidden element with aria-activedescendant (visibility:hidden)
Option 1
Option 2
Visibility hidden elements are not tested
Element with aria-hidden="true" and aria-activedescendant
Option 1
Option 2
aria-hidden elements are not available to assistive technologies
PASS Tests - ARIA Activedescendant Pointing to Unique IDs
Combobox with aria-activedescendant pointing to unique option
Apple
Banana
Combobox manages focus on unique option ID
Listbox with aria-activedescendant pointing to unique option
Item 1
Item 2
Item 3
Listbox indicates currently focused option with unique ID
Grid with aria-activedescendant pointing to unique cell
A1
B1
A2
B2
Grid manages focus on unique cell ID
Tree with aria-activedescendant pointing to unique treeitem
Folder 1
Folder 2
File 1
Tree indicates focused node with unique ID
Searchbox with aria-activedescendant pointing to unique suggestion
Apple
Application
Approval
Searchbox autocomplete with unique suggestion IDs
Menu with aria-activedescendant pointing to unique menuitem
Cut
Copy
Paste
Menu manages focus on unique menuitem ID
Multiple composite widgets each with unique aria-activedescendant
Option A
Option B
Each widget has unique descendant IDs
Element with aria-activedescendant to single unique ID among other duplicates
Unique Option
Duplicate 1
Duplicate 2
aria-activedescendant points to unique ID, even though other duplicates exist
FAIL Tests - ARIA Activedescendant Pointing to Duplicate IDs
Combobox with aria-activedescendant pointing to duplicate option ID
Apple
Apricot
Option ID appears twice - combobox FAILS
Listbox with aria-activedescendant pointing to duplicate option ID
Item 1
Item 2
Item 3
Listbox points to duplicate option ID - FAILS
Grid with aria-activedescendant pointing to duplicate cell ID
A1
B1
Grid cell ID is duplicated - grid FAILS
Tree with aria-activedescendant pointing to duplicate treeitem ID
Folder 1
Folder 2
Tree node ID is duplicated - tree FAILS
Searchbox with aria-activedescendant pointing to duplicate suggestion ID
Apple
Application
Suggestion ID is duplicated - searchbox FAILS
Menu with aria-activedescendant pointing to duplicate menuitem ID
Cut
Copy
Menu item ID is duplicated - menu FAILS
Tablist with aria-activedescendant pointing to duplicate tab ID
Tab 1
Tab 2
Tab ID is duplicated - tablist FAILS
Textbox with aria-activedescendant pointing to duplicate suggestion ID
Type here...
Suggestion 1
Suggestion 2
Autocomplete suggestion ID is duplicated - textbox FAILS
FAIL Tests - Edge Cases
Element with aria-activedescendant with extra whitespace pointing to duplicate ID
Option 1
Option 2
Whitespace is trimmed - still detects duplicate ID
Div with composite role and aria-activedescendant pointing to duplicate ID
Target 1
Target 2
Custom listbox with duplicate descendant IDs - FAILS
Select with aria-activedescendant pointing to duplicate ID
Native select with duplicate option IDs - FAILS
Element with aria-activedescendant to ID in both visible and hidden elements
Visible Option
Hidden Option
ID appears in both visible and hidden elements - still duplicated, FAILS
FAIL Tests - Multiple Failures
Two comboboxes with aria-activedescendant pointing to same duplicate ID (2 failures)
Option 1
Option 2
Both comboboxes reference duplicate ID - both FAIL (2 failures)
Mix of passing and failing composite widgets (1 failure)
Duplicate 1
Duplicate 2
Unique
First combobox FAILS (duplicate), second PASSES (unique)
Multiple widgets pointing to different duplicate IDs (2 failures)
A
B
C
D
Each widget references a different duplicate ID - both FAIL (2 failures)
Real World Examples
PASS: Proper autocomplete combobox with unique active option
Apple
Banana
Cherry
Combobox properly indicates active option with unique ID - PASSES
FAIL: Autocomplete with duplicate option IDs
First Result
Second Result
Search results have duplicate IDs - combobox FAILS
PASS: Proper grid with unique active cell
A1
B1
C1
A2
B2
C2
Grid properly manages focus on unique cells - PASSES
FAIL: Grid with duplicate cell IDs
A1
B1
Grid cells have duplicate IDs - grid FAILS
PASS: Proper tree navigation with unique active node
Documents
Work
Personal
Downloads
Tree properly manages focus on unique nodes - PASSES
FAIL: Tree with duplicate node IDs
Folder 1
Subfolder
Tree nodes have duplicate IDs - tree FAILS
PASS: Proper menu with unique active menuitem
Cut
Copy
Paste
Menu properly manages focus on unique menuitems - PASSES