fix(a11y): give every wa-dialog an accessible name
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Eleven dialogs passed a `label` that never reached the accessibility
tree: Web Awesome renders it into an <h2 id="title"> in the same shadow
root as the native <dialog> and never points aria-labelledby at it, so
getByRole('dialog', {name}) matched nothing and a screen reader
announced an unnamed dialog. a11y.md lists all of them under "what is
already correct".

utils/name-dialog.ts sets the IDREF, with aria-label as the fallback for
without-header (first-run-wizard), called from each host's updated().
aria-labelledby rather than aria-label because three call sites compute
their label at render time, and the heading re-renders anyway. It waits
for the dialog's own first update: wa-dialog populates its shadow root
in its own update, so a query at the host's firstUpdated names nothing.

Reaching into another library's open shadow root is deliberate and the
failure is bounded — if the structure moves, the query misses and the
dialog is as unnamed as it was.
This commit is contained in:
2026-08-12 14:52:23 -04:00
parent d681a7223e
commit 287b6445fa
14 changed files with 492 additions and 14 deletions
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/**
* Every `wa-dialog` in this app is an unnamed dialog. This names them.
*
* `a11y.md` lists all of them under "what is already correct" and notes
* that every call site passes a `label` — both true, and the label never
* reaches the accessibility tree. Web Awesome renders it into an
* `<h2 part="title" id="title">` in the *same shadow root* as the native
* `<dialog part="dialog">` and never points `aria-labelledby` at it, so
* `getByRole('dialog', {name})` matches nothing and a screen reader
* announces an unnamed dialog. Confirmed in the installed source
* (`dist/chunks/chunk.ZUIYLL2X.js`, `WaDialog.render`).
*
* Three decisions are worth stating, because each has a failure mode:
*
* **This reaches into another library's shadow root**, which is open and
* therefore reachable, but is not API. It is acceptable here precisely
* because the failure is bounded: if Web Awesome changes the structure,
* the query returns null, the helper does nothing, and the dialog is as
* unnamed as it is today. There is no state to get wrong and nothing to
* throw. The alternative — patching `WaDialog.prototype` — fixes every
* call site for free and fails loudly and strangely instead.
*
* **It prefers `aria-labelledby` over `aria-label`.** Three call sites
* have a label that changes after the first render (`track-details`,
* `confirm-dialog`, `notification-host`), and an IDREF to the `<h2>` the
* dialog re-renders anyway stays correct for free. `aria-label` is the
* fallback for `without-header`, which renders no `<h2>` at all
* (`first-run-wizard` is the one such caller).
*
* **And it waits for the dialog's own first update, not its host's.**
* `wa-dialog` is a Lit element: its shadow root is populated in *its*
* update, which has not run when the host reaches `firstUpdated`. A
* synchronous query there finds an element with an empty shadow root
* and names nothing — the same trap that made `wa-dropdown-item`'s role
* invisible to the menu keyboard model two passes ago.
*/
/** The id Web Awesome gives its title heading, within its own shadow root. */
const WA_TITLE_ID = 'title';
/** A `wa-dialog` element, as much of it as this file needs. */
type DialogHost = Element & {
label?: string;
updateComplete?: Promise<unknown>;
};
/**
* Dialogs already pointed at their own heading.
*
* Hosts call this from `updated()`, which runs on every pass, so the
* steady-state cost has to be a lookup rather than an attribute write.
* Only the IDREF path is cached: it cannot go stale, because the `<h2>`
* it names re-renders with the label. The `aria-label` fallback is
* re-applied every call, since a copied string can.
*/
const named = new WeakSet<Element>();
/** Set the name, if the shadow root is there to set it on. Returns success. */
function applyName(host: DialogHost): boolean {
const root = host.shadowRoot;
if (!root) return false;
const dialog = root.querySelector('dialog[part~="dialog"]');
if (!dialog) return false;
// The header, and so the heading the name comes from, is absent
// under `without-header`.
if (root.querySelector(`#${WA_TITLE_ID}`)) {
dialog.setAttribute('aria-labelledby', WA_TITLE_ID);
dialog.removeAttribute('aria-label');
named.add(host);
return true;
}
const label = host.label ?? host.getAttribute('label') ?? '';
if (label) {
dialog.setAttribute('aria-label', label);
dialog.removeAttribute('aria-labelledby');
}
return true;
}
/**
* Point the native `<dialog>` inside a `<wa-dialog>` at its own title.
*
* Safe to call before the dialog has rendered, and safe to call more
* than once — it is a no-op when there is nothing to name. Call it from
* the host's `firstUpdated()`, or from `updated()` for a host that
* renders its dialog conditionally.
*/
export function nameDialog(host: DialogHost | null | undefined): void {
if (!host || named.has(host)) return;
if (applyName(host)) return;
// Not rendered yet: wait for the dialog's own update, then retry
// once. Anything still missing after that is a structure this
// helper does not recognise, which is the bounded failure above.
void host.updateComplete?.then(() => {
applyName(host);
});
}
/**
* Name every `wa-dialog` rendered in `root`.
*
* The hosts that render two dialogs, or render one conditionally, use
* this rather than tracking a `@query` each.
*/
export function nameDialogsIn(root: ShadowRoot | null | undefined): void {
if (!root) return;
for (const host of root.querySelectorAll('wa-dialog')) {
nameDialog(host as DialogHost);
}
}