Possible confusing language in WAI-ARIA 1.1 Authoring Guide

[macgyver]

I am implementing a radio button group and I was wondering about the instructions here
https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-practices-1.1/#radiobutton

Specfiically this bit:

Space selects the radio button with focus and de-selects other radio buttons in the group.

Slightly before that, it says that left/right/up/down keys should cycle through the options of a radio group by focusing and selecting them. Can you explain how it is possible to focus a radio option without selecting it, such that the space key would then be necessary to select it?

I hope this is the right place to raise a question like this, please let me know if you know of a better place, thank you!

[mcking65]

@macgyver, you are right; it is confusing. I will fix it.

The only time focus lands on a radio that is not selected is when you move focus inside of a group where none of the buttons are selected. In this case, space would focus the radio that has focus. It would not effect any other buttons. In all other circumstances, when you tab to a radio group, focus should land on the selected radio button.

[mcking65]

Copied this issue to the new aria-practices repo as w3c/aria-practices/#96. Closing it here.