[EuiDataGrid/EuiTable] VoiceOver does not reliably announce updated sort order when activating sortable column headers

[bhavyarm]

Description

When a user activates a sortable column header in EuiDataGrid, VoiceOver does not reliably announce the updated sorting state.After the sort is changed, screen reader users should be informed whether the column is now sorted ascending, descending, or not sorted. Instead, VoiceOver only announces the column header itself, without clearly conveying that the sorting state changed.

Steps to reproduce

• Open an EuiDataGrid with sortable column headers
• Turn on VoiceOver on macOS
• Move focus to a sortable column header
• Activate the header to sort the column
• Activate it again to change the sort direction
• Listen to what VoiceOver announces after each action

Here is a screenshot from field statistics table in Kibana in Discover:

Kibana issue for reference: elastic/kibana#214561

[mgadewoll]

The component shown in the screenshot is EuiTable, but it likely applies to EuiDataGrid too as both use aria-sort to define the semantic sorting state.

@bhavyarm Some first thoughts: The issue here is that the support for the aria-sort attribute is different across screen readers. NVDA and JAWS announce it just fine on focus (if aria-sort is set) or on change of aria-sort (on click of the header). VoiceOver only announces the aria-sort value on focus if it's set. Not on change.

scenario	recording
VoiceOver/Safari	Screen.Recording.2026-04-10.at.16.40.27.mov
JAWS/Chrome	Screen.Recording.2026-04-10.at.16.43.46.mov
NVDA/Chrome	Screen.Recording.2026-04-10.at.16.44.43.mov

We could add additional manual announcements but that would result in duplication in other screen readers as they's announce both the aria-sort change and the additional announcement. 🙈

[bhavyarm]

thanks so much @mgadewoll so this looks like scoped to voiceover only. I am not sure if we should be fixing this then? Thanks! cc @peteharverson @alexwizp

[peteharverson]

Sounds like we don't want to be changing the behavior here for Voiceoer only, but @mgadewoll @bhavyarm can you reproduce the issue reported in elastic/kibana#214561 where it was reported that the sort order in the EuiTable wasn't reliably announced on NVDA (some columns no announcement, or sometimes no announcement till Enter was pressed multiple times)?