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Using iPhone and iPad with VoiceOver - comparing apples to apples?

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From: Marc Solomon
Date: Aug 19, 2016 10:00AM

To the mobile accessibility gurus on this list,

I recently came across an example where the user experience of interacting with a particular web form was substantially different between an iPhone and iPad Air. This form has three <select> inputs. On the iPhone (iOS 9.3.3), you can use VoiceOver to interact with the first <select> input with no issue. But, the second and third <select> inputs while announced could not be activated. When I tested the same form using an iPad Air (same iOS version as iPhone), I didn't have any issues with the second and third <select> inputs.

In addition, the gestures used for navigating through the <select> input's options differed on the devices. On the iPhone, swiping up moves focus to the next option. On the iPad, swiping to the right was required to navigate to the next option.

Has anyone experienced this type of inconsistency between an iPhone and iPad on the same web page? Is there a reason why the VoiceOver gesture interaction is different for <select>/pop up button inputs?

Thanks,
Marc