JAWS drops out of forms mode when focus is programatically moved to an <input> on ArrowUp or ArrowDown

[Epic-Third-Party-Bug-Reporting]

Summary

If focus is programmatically moved to an when the user presses ArrowUp or ArrowDown, JAWS switches to browse mode.
This prevents continued arrowkey navigation and prevents immediate entry into the <input>.

Reproducible Codepen.

Expected result

JAWS should stay in forms mode

Actual result

JAWS switched to browse mode

Version Info

JAWS: Reproduced on both 2024.2411.16 and 2025.2412.50. Was not present with JAWS 2022, didn't test with 2023.
Browsers: Reproduced on Chrome 131.0.6778.266 and Firefox 134.0.1.
OS: Windows 11, version 24H2.

[JAWS-test]

This is an error caused by the automatic form mode change in JAWS. This should be avoided because it is so error-prone, see e.g.

• Using virtual cursor to read input field, JAWS reads content of previous field #614
• JAWS not reading form field placeholder text with arrow navigation #688
• JAWS reads the placeholder text of the previous element in browse mode. #679
• Incorrect output of input fields with the virtual cursor  #465
• Search field not properly read in VPC (navigate with arrow keys) mode #690
• JAWS announces previous input's value when reading next input #803