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Consider allowing combobox to open menus #2050

@scottaohara

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@scottaohara
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This is being asked for consideration for a few reasons:

  1. for better or worse, this can be what current combobox patterns are trying to achieve - a input field that allows for someone to submit a value - but also a popup where on activation of a choice something happens on the page / results are automatically updates / an action performs.
  2. the line between when something is a menuitemradio/checkbox vs an option/multi-selection option can be rather grey - and arguably for multi-select, menuitemcheckboxes with their clear checked/unchecked state can be more understandable than listboxes > options where screen readers have each made their own decisions on when to announce selected vs unselected - under the initial assumption that selection always follows focus.
  3. I could create a combobox that opened a dialog and then that dialog contained a menu within it... there's nothing preventing me from doing that now and it'd be "valid" though a silly workaround to mitigate against the current lack of "allowance" to directly open a menu from a combobox.

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JAWS-test

JAWS-test commented on Sep 26, 2023

@JAWS-test
Contributor

This would at least correct how Chrome submits a native HTML select element to the API: as a combobox with menu and menuitem. And it would be closer to the iOS implementation, where the select is rendered as a menu button.

smhigley

smhigley commented on Sep 28, 2023

@smhigley
Contributor

For a concrete example of this in the wild, the current Fluent UI multiselect combobox opens a menu with menuitemcheckbox children: https://react.fluentui.dev/?path=/docs/components-combobox--default#multiselect

The primary reason for this was that it performed markedly better than listbox/option for multiselect scenarios in a user study.

cookiecrook

cookiecrook commented on Oct 19, 2023

@cookiecrook
Contributor
added this to the 2024 milestone on Oct 19, 2023
spectranaut

spectranaut commented on Oct 19, 2023

@spectranaut
Contributor

Discussed in today's working group meeting: https://www.w3.org/2023/10/19-aria-minutes.html#t06

Next steps: @mcking65 to make a PR with the change in the title, @scottaohara to make follow up issues for the other points discussed

added a commit that references this issue on Jan 29, 2025
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      Consider allowing combobox to open menus · Issue #2050 · w3c/aria