bug(Grid): Shift+Arrow does not move selection

[jonashammerschmidt]

Is this a regression?

• Yes, this behavior used to work in the previous version

The previous version in which this bug was not present was

No response

Description

In Grid (@angular/aria: 21.0.1), Arrow Up/Down/Left/Right moves the focused cell as expected. However, when the user keeps the Shift key pressed, the focus does not move anymore. This breaks keyboard flows that involve Shift while navigating, like multi select.

Question
Is this intentional? If not, could ngGrid keep processing Arrow key navigation even when Shift is pressed so modified selection patterns remain functional?

Reproduction

1. Use any ngGrid (e.g., the official demo).
2. Focus a row/cell.
3. Hold Shift and press Arrow Down (or any arrow).
4. Focus no longer changes.

Expected Behavior

Arrow navigation should continue to work while Shift is held so users can move focus and extend range selections or perform other Shift-modified shortcuts.

Actual Behavior

Holding Shift prevents the grid from moving focus; the active row/column stays frozen until Shift is released.

Environment

• Angular CLI : 21.0.1
• Node.js : 22.20.0
• Package Manager : npm 11.6.0
• Operating System : macOS darwin arm64
• Browser(s): Chrome, Firefox, Safari

[jonashammerschmidt]

So far, our team enjoys the features that @angular/aria provides. It fills a gap for us—we didn’t know we needed it, but we did. We love seeing this kind of progress in accessibility tooling and the angular stack!

[crisbeto]

I believe this is intentional since the modifier keys can be used either by OS-level shortcuts or shortcuts within a screen reader.

[jonashammerschmidt]

Thanks for the clarification. From my perspective the current behavior feels more like a restriction of the component than a necessary design choice. If assistive technologies or operating systems need to handle Shift in a special way, they can already intercept that before the event reaches the browser, so there is no inherent reason for the component to block navigation at this level.

A simple example is a text input, where holding Shift and pressing the arrow keys selects text without any conflict. Screen readers do not prevent this interaction and the browser handles it naturally. It would be great if the grid behaved similarly and allowed navigation while Shift is held.