Hello Michael,

Thank you for reporting this and for providing the details.

After reviewing the case, we determined that this is not a bug. The jQuery DropDownList fires the select event when the user navigates with the arrow keys, and the change event fires only when the value actually changes. You can observe all events in the DropDownList Events demo:

• When the DDList is focused and its popup is closed, pressing arrow keys fires both select and change events when the value is changed. When the final item is reached, and the value does not change anymore, only the select event would be fired again if the same arrow key is pressed. Continuing to fire the event is a legacy behavior, which should not be changed.
• When the DDList is focused and its popup is open, pressing arrow keys fires the select event only, as the value is not changed. If the selected item is changed after opening the popup, then the value is changed either on pressing Enter, clicking on the item or blurring the DDList. If the popup is closed via Esc or Alt + Up Arrow, the change event is not fired - expected.

The difference compared to the other suites comes from their event models:

• Angular has selectionChange and valueChange events, and its Events demo behaves like the jQuery DropDownList.
• React has only the onChange event, so its DropDownList fires it whenever the selected item changes in the popup.

With the above said, we are closing this report as "Declined". If you have any further questions or run into a different scenario, please open a new thread or support ticket and we will be glad to help.

Regards,
Neli
Progress Telerik

Hello Michael,

I am afraid this will not make it in the upcoming release, and I cannot give a time frame for making it in the Roadmap. It depends on priority it holds, volume of items and other factors.

If this is critically impacting your operations, we can explore engaging our Professional Services team, who specialize in custom solutions and accelerated consulting for situations just like this.

Regards,
Nikolay
Progress Telerik

Hello Michael,

After a preliminary review, we've identified that this specific interaction does not have a single, universally standard implementation. The impact of this decision on both accessibility (a11y) and user experience (UX) is significant, and we want to ensure it aligns with best practices and our product's goals.

Therefore, we are not yet in a position to confirm the final behavior. Our next step is to convene a discussion between our design, development, and accessibility teams to evaluate the options and their implications. We will provide a definitive answer following that internal alignment.

Updates will be posted in the provided GitHub issue. Your patience is highly appreciated.

Regards,
Nikolay
Progress Telerik

Hi Michael,

Thank you for reporting this undesired behavior with the DropDownList.

You are right and we need to update the current behavior. The change event shall trigger on arrow key press.  You can track the progress at the item in the next link:

https://github.com/telerik/kendo-ui-core/issues/8343

As a token of gratitude for reporting this, I added some Telerik points to your account.

Regards,
Nikolay
Progress Telerik