Is it possible to force Ios browser focus from input to another element?

Question

Hay, I have certain problem with voiceover in Ios6 when voiceover is turn on. This is the scenario: when I click on link, say search, I give to div aria-hidden = false, and I trigger focus on an input element inside. And then I click another link and it trigger focus on the previous search link. but now - the focus runs away to Url.

After a lot of testing I sure the problem is that the focus is on the input element. I don't know if it possible at all to give focus to another element after input is focused. but this is the customer requirement. More important thing- it is worked in IOS 5.

I have fiddle example here: "https://jsfiddle.net/37a6mqtu/6/".

var $searchbar = $("#search-bar");
var $button = $("#btn-search-opener");
var $closebutton =$("#closebutton");
// handle click and add css
$button.on("click", function(){
  $searchbar.attr("aria-hidden","false");
  setTimeout(function () {
        $searchbar.find('[name="q"]').focus().css("background-color","green");
    }, 500);
  
});

$closebutton.on("click", function(){
$button.focus().css("background-color","red"); 
});

body {
  background: #20262E;
  padding: 20px;
  font-family: Helvetica;
}

#search-bar {
  background: #fff;
  border-radius: 4px;
  padding: 20px;
  font-size: 25px;
  text-align: center;
  transition: all 0.2s;
  margin: 0 auto;
  width: 300px;
}

button,#btn-search-opener {
  background: #0084ff;
  border: none;
  border-radius: 5px;
  padding: 8px 14px;
  font-size: 15px;
  color: #fff;
}

#search-bar.alt {
  background: #0084ff;
  color: #fff;
  margin-top: 40px;
  width: 200px;
}

#search-bar.alt button {
  background: #fff;
  color: #000;
}

#search-bar input:focus {
background-color:green;
}

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<a href="#search-bar" id="btn-search-opener" class="btn-search-opener" aria-controls="search-bar" aria-label="search icon" aria-expanded="true">
<span class="sr-only" data-font-size="16" data-font-size-type="px" data-line-height="24px">search</span>
</a>

                      
<div id="search-bar" class="search-bar" aria-hidden="true" >
    <div class="container" data-font-size="16" data-font-size-type="px" data-line-height="24px">
        <form role="search">
        <a href="#" id=closebutton>X</a>
            <div class="hold" data-font-size="16" data-font-size-type="px" data-line-height="24px">
                <label class="sr-only" for="lbl-01" data-font-size="16" data-font-size-type="px" data-line-height="24px">search</label>
                <input class="form-control" type="search" name="q" id="lbl-01" placeholder="search">
                <input class="btn btn-search" type="submit" value="Search">                    
            </div>
        </form><!-- / search-form -->
            
    </div><!-- / container -->
    
</div>

What I expect is the focus will stay on the search link.

thank for help!

Answer 1

If I understand the problem correctly, clicking on the "search" link, successfully moves the focus to the search <input>. Then when you click on the X-close, you try to put the focus back on the original "search" link but instead the focus is moving to the address bar?

This problem sounds familiar. I think it's a bug in VoiceOver that was discussed either here on stackoverflow or in another online forum about accessibility but I can't find a reference to it.

Note that you mention iOS5 and iOS6 in your question but the current version is iOS12. Was the "5" and "6" a typo?

Also, I know your example was just for illustrating your problem but just in case you are actually using this pattern for other coding, I have a couple accessibility comments:

• The first link has an aria-label ("search icon") but there is already visible text inside the link ("search") so an aria-label is not necessary. An aria-label will override any text that's contained in the element.
• The X-close link does not have an aria-label but it needs one. Currently, a screen reader will just say "X link". You should use <a href="#" id=closebutton aria-label='close'>X</a> (although that might fail WCAG 2.5.3)