Fix: Always use aria-selected for ActionList items with role="option"

[liuliu-dev]

What are you trying to accomplish?

Ensures that ActionList items with role="option" (i.e., items in a listbox) always use aria-selected instead of aria-checked.

Related issue: https://github.com/github/accessibility-audits/issues/14576

My previous fix in #3875 addressed the double announcement issue ("not selected not checked") for SelectPanel by changing aria_selection_variant to always use :selected. It only applies when using SelectPanel::ItemList.

This follow-up fix enforces correct ARIA semantics at the ActionList::Item level by checking if the parent list has role="listbox". Per WAI-ARIA 1.2 specification, the option role requires aria-selected as its selection state,aria-checked is only a supported attribute, not the primary selection indicator.

Integration

Risk Assessment

• Low risk the change is small, highly observable, and easily rolled back.
• Medium risk changes that are isolated, reduced in scope or could impact few users. The change will not impact library availability.
• High risk changes are those that could impact customers and SLOs, low or no test coverage, low observability, or slow to rollback.

What approach did you choose and why?

Anything you want to highlight for special attention from reviewers?

Accessibility

• Fixes axe scan violation - This change fixes an existing axe scan violation.
• No new axe scan violation - This change does not introduce any new axe scan violations.
• New axe violation - This change introduces a new axe scan violation. Please describe why the violation cannot be resolved below.

Merge checklist

• Added/updated tests
• Added/updated documentation
• Added/updated previews (Lookbook)
• Tested in Chrome
• Tested in Firefox
• Tested in Safari
• Tested in Edge

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[changeset-bot]

🦋 Changeset detected

Latest commit: a828f8e

The changes in this PR will be included in the next version bump.

This PR includes changesets to release 1 package

Name	Type
@primer/view-components	Patch

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[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR fixes an accessibility issue where ActionList items with role="option" (i.e., items in a listbox) were not consistently using aria-selected as required by the WAI-ARIA 1.2 specification. This is a follow-up to PR #3875, which addressed the issue for SelectPanel specifically, but this fix applies it more broadly at the ActionList::Item level.

Changes:

• Modified ActionList::Item to automatically use aria-selected when the parent list has role="listbox", regardless of the aria_selection_variant setting
• Added a changeset documenting this accessibility fix

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated no comments.

File	Description
app/components/primer/alpha/action_list/item.rb	Updated logic to enforce aria-selected for listbox items per WAI-ARIA spec
.changeset/slick-walls-retire.md	Added changeset documenting the fix

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