Open Radar

 
Summary:
VoiceOver appears to be losing track of the items in its buffer and, after browser repaint/setting of focus, still maintains a reference to the element which has been removed. When Accessibility Inspector asks what it believes currently has focus, VoiceOver is setting focus to the closest previous item which is still present in its buffer.

Steps to Reproduce:
Using VoiceOver, visit:
1. http://ember-a11y.github.io/ember-a11y/
2. Click the "Messages" link.
3. Click the "Conversation with Jimmy" link.
4. Click the "Back to message list." link.

Can recreate the issue using vanilla JavaScript (without Ember) as well.

Expected Results:
The focus should be reset to the header, not remain highlighting the previously focused link.

Actual Results:
The browser focus is set to the proper area, VoiceOver reads the correct content, but the VoiceOver cursor position remains the non-existent previous link, and the Accessibility Inspector believes that the focus is the closest prior element which still exists in the browser DOM.

Version:
OS X 10.11.*

Notes:
Full details, including a step-by-step analysis in Accessibility Inspector can be found here: https://github.com/ember-a11y/ember-a11y/issues/1

Configuration:
Use VoiceOver on El Capitan and test in Safari.