Intern.js getVisibleText() does not work on dijits

We are using dojo 1.13 with intern v3.
In one of our functional tests we are doing the following:

 .findByClassName('functionalTestWidget')
                .click()
                .sleep(1000)
                // check placeholder
                .getVisibleText()
                      .then(function (text) {
                          assert.strictEqual(text, 'Type here');  // SUCCESS
                      })
                .pressKeys('01/10/2010') 

                // press tab to get out of the control 
                .pressKeys('\uE004')
                .sleep(1000)                
                .end()

            .findByClassName('functionalTestWidget')
                .click()
                .sleep(1000)
                .getVisibleText()
                      .then(function (text) {
                          assert.strictEqual(text, '01/10/2010'); // FAILS : text is ''
                      })

although it can read the placeholder, after typing someting, pressing tab and then reselecting the widget, the getVisibleText returns an empty string