Safari lacks support for aria-activedescendent: questions

Dear WAI ARIA-IG,

It seems that it is a well known issue that “Voiceover on the Mac does not properly support aria-activedescendant to ensure accessibility for the blind.” (Webkit bug list <https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=269026>).

This bug makes it so that the selected option is not always read out - mostly it is not read out, but there are times when it gets read out. The behavior is quite buggy. This bug affects the recommended Design Pattern documented on the ARIA Practices website for grid-combo <https://www.w3.org/WAI/ARIA/apg/patterns/combobox/examples/grid-combo/> and the auto-complete combo <https://www.w3.org/WAI/ARIA/apg/patterns/combobox/examples/combobox-autocomplete-list/>.

I have 2 questions:
Does anyone on this list know of a good work around for Safari?

My second question is more nuanced as our team tries to assess the inclusion of this Design Pattern on our website. Pros: the pattern offers important search functionality for long lists of options, including mid-string searches which are important for us. The pattern works when using the Chrome browser.

From a WCAG perspective, how do people generally address browser-based bugs that are out of their hands? 
Do you include the pattern in your website knowing that some people will need to change browsers to access certain aspects of your website, and wait for the vendor to address it? OR
Do you design an alternative that offers less functionality for everyone?

I would appreciate thoughts on both questions 1 and 2. If question 2 is not appropriate for this list, I can re-post that question on the WCAG-IG list.

Taliesin
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
Taliesin L. Smith
talilief@gmail.com 
taliesin.smith@colorado.edu 

Inclusive Design Research Specialist
PhET Interactive Simulations
http://phet.colorado.edu/
Department of Physics
University of Colorado, Boulder