Building an accessible custom Dropdown from scratch proved a surprisingly tough exercise. The author, writing for DEV Community, set out to master focus management, keyboard‑first interaction, ARIA behavior, and event scoping—skills that are often overlooked when developers rely on native form controls. The component uses React hooks to toggle visibility, track the active option, and handle keyboard navigation.

A key insight emerged when the author discovered that clicking an option triggers a blur event before the click, causing the menu to close prematurely and the selection to fail. By moving the selection logic to onMouseDown, the component captures intent before blur, preserving both mouse and keyboard usability. This tweak illustrates how subtle event ordering can break accessibility, a lesson that extends to many custom widgets.

The post also highlights the importance of matching ARIA roles to actual interaction models, a practice that can prevent screen‑reader confusion. As developers adopt more custom UI primitives, understanding these nuances becomes essential for inclusive design.