Voiceover issues with button control on web app

Hi there.

I'm developing a web application and stumbled upon a strange situation when testing with VO on iOS17. For some reason my button controls receive focus, however when I attempt to activate them with single finger doubletap nothing happens.

We specifically used native HTML5 <button> controls to facilitate accessibility, yet for some reason it is not working as expected.

Wondering if this group has any idea what the culprit may be?

Thx!