aria-describedby reports referencing error, for empty spans that will have error messages.

[DavidMacDonald]

A site has gets injected with a span that is populated with an error message if the user submits the form without filling in the field that is required. Axe reporting an aria-describedby error.

Invalid ARIA attribute value: aria-describedby="giftCard_0Error"

<input id="giftCard_0" aria-describedby="giftCard_0Error" aria-invalid="false" ...

Because there is no corresponding element with a matching id until the user makes an error and submits.
does it require an empty span?
<span id="giftCard_0Error" aria-live="polite">[nothing here yet]></span>

I wonder if there is some way to make the aria-describedby message conditional to the presence of an error message?? Not sure, but its a false positive as it stands.

[WilcoFiers]

Hey David. Thanks for reporting. This is something I've been thinking about myself. I don't think axe should just pass when IDREFs don't exist, but I think it might be worth putting it into review. Certainly this seems like a false positive to me, so I think we should treat it that way and work out a fix for it.

I'm actually inclined to no longer put requirements on ARIA idrefs attributes, and to only require that an idref attribute doesn't have a space (as those aren't allowed in IDs). We can than have a separate rule testing that IDREF targets exist. WDYT?

[DavidMacDonald]

I think its valuable to check that there is a matching id. Its fine if its a separate check. However, I think perhaps downgrading the check for corresponding id if the aria-describedby on a input type="text" to needs manual conformation.

[jeankaplansky]

@WilcoFiers , @straker : Please confirm - no new documentation required here until we create a new rule specifically testing the IDREF? Thanks.

[straker]

@jeankaplansky Correct. No new documentation required.

[jeankaplansky]

👍 Thanks!

[chandana7393]

Tested, under "We are not sure this is an issue, because:" observed that for ARIA attribute unable to see the value instead some condition is displayed.

Tested Environment:
Attest - 2.5.1.21115v
Axe - 3.8.1.21115v
Axe-coconut - 3.8.1.21104v
Chrome - 75.0.3770.142v
OS - Windows 10 64 bit

[somaalapati]

@chandana7393 I hope you can verify it now.

[chandana7393]

Tested, working fine on axe-coconut.

For Attest and axe under "We are not sure this is an issue, because:" observed that for ARIA attribute unable to see the value instead some condition is displayed.


Tested Environment:
Attest - 2.5.1.21421v
Axe - 3.8.1.21421v
Axe-coconut - 3.8.1.21704v
Chrome - 76.0.3809.87v
Firefox - 68.0.1v
OS - Windows 10 64 bit.

[straker]

@WilcoFiers we need to create another release of axe-core to fix the incomplete translation message for all downstream dependencies.

[straker]

@chandana7393 since this requires a new version of axe and Attest to pull it in, could we close this issue as the problem has been resolved for axe?

[chandana7393]

Tested, working as expected in axe-coconut.
![check_ref_axe_coconut](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/45285854/62767015-5e903e80-bab1-11e9-916f-ab82be163acc.PNG
Tested Environment:
Axe-coconut - 3.8.1.21704v
Chrome - 76.0.3809.100v
OS - Windows 10 64 bit.
Created new ticket for Axe and Attest
#1761

[iamrafan]

@WilcoFiers @straker : The intended fix for this issue is not working as expected. Case-1 in the below samples does not show up as "needs review'.

Demo: https://codepen.io/iamrafan/pen/abOrzVb?editors=1000

aria-describedby referenced to an empty <span> is now not a failure but it does not show up as 'needs review' as well.