Voice Over does not speak corresponding Header Row/Column when navigating cells in Numbers

I've noticed this as well. For me in at least one table VoiceOver stops announcing header column names after column 10 (that is, from column 11 onwards VoiceOver only announces the column by letter reference (e.g. “Column L”) rather than name). This is frustrating and makes using some large tables very difficult with VoiceOver. It's disappointing. And for me too it only happened since upgrading to Numbers version 10 for Mac.

Anyone who has experienced or can reproduce this bug please report to Apple accessibility.

Since upgrading to Numbers 10 for Mac, VoiceOver stops announcing header column names after column 10.

Steps to reproduce

1. Create/open Numbers document with a table that has 1 header row, more than 10 columns, and an entry in every cell of row 1 so that each column has a named header (e.g. “Date”, “Item”, “Description”, etc).
2. Starting at the left most column in one of the body rows of that table, use the arrow keys to navigate right through each cell in the row.

Expected behaviour

• VoiceOver should announce the name of the column header as it moves to each new cell in the row before announcing the contents of that cell (e.g. “Date, April 6th 2020”).

Actual behaviour

• VoiceOver will announce the header name for each column as you navigate through the first 10 columns, but from column 11 onwards VoiceOver only announces the contents and the cell address.

I haven’t tested this thoroughly enough to know whether this happens with all tables of a certain size or only some tables. I’ve reproduced it in at least 2 different existing spreadsheets. I have also heard reports from other VoiceOver users that the issue occurs for them after a different number of columns but for me it is after column 10 in both spreadsheets.

I also noticed it, and having hidden rows or columns makes it even worse.

Already reported to Apple and they were able to replicate the problem.

Also, in all iWork apps, when I do a VO+FN+left arrow (or VO+home) inside a table, Voiceover restarts. I also reported this.

In Numbers at least, I find that navigating through tables using only the arrow keys and not the VO keys gives me best results in most situations. For instance, if some rows or columns have been hidden, they will be ignored when navigating using only the arrow keys but they will be encountered if using the VO keys. Similarly with merged cells, using only the arrow keys will treat them as one block, but annoyingly VO will not announce the contents if you navigate to them using only the arrow keys so in that situation you'll need to use the VO keys to hear the contents of the cell. Now I think of it that merged cells issue probably needs to be reported as a bug as well.

In any event, the point of that is that simply using the command plus arrow keys will allow you to jump to the first/last cell in that direction. For example, command + up arrow will jump you to the first cell in the column, command + down arrow will jump you to the last cell in the column, command + left arrow will jump you to the first cell in the row, etc. It may be an alternative to using VO-home while that bug persists. Command + up arrow followed by command + left arrow should take you to the first cell in the table, if that's what you are trying to achieve by VO-home. But if you're doing VO-home outside a table then of course the command arrow trick won't get the same result.