ARIA Practices Guide

Example

Accordion Example: demonstrates a form divided into three sections using an accordion to show one section at a time.

Keyboard Interaction

• Enter or Space:
  • When focus is on the accordion header for a collapsed panel, expands the associated panel. If the implementation allows only one panel to be expanded, and if another panel is expanded, collapses that panel.
  • When focus is on the accordion header for an expanded panel, collapses the panel if the implementation supports collapsing. Some implementations require one panel to be expanded at all times and allow only one panel to be expanded; so, they do not support a collapse function.
• Tab: Moves focus to the next focusable element; all focusable elements in the accordion are included in the page Tab sequence.
• Shift + Tab: Moves focus to the previous focusable element; all focusable elements in the accordion are included in the page Tab sequence.
• Down Arrow (Optional): If focus is on an accordion header, moves focus to the next accordion header. If focus is on the last accordion header, either does nothing or moves focus to the first accordion header.
• Up Arrow (Optional): If focus is on an accordion header, moves focus to the previous accordion header. If focus is on the first accordion header, either does nothing or moves focus to the last accordion header.
• Home (Optional): When focus is on an accordion header, moves focus to the first accordion header.
• End (Optional): When focus is on an accordion header, moves focus to the last accordion header.

WAI-ARIA Roles, States, and Properties:

• The title of each accordion header is contained in an element with role button.
• Each accordion header button is wrapped in an element with role heading that has a value set for aria-level that is appropriate for the information architecture of the page.
  • If the native host language has an element with an implicit heading and aria-level, such as an HTML heading tag, a native host language element may be used.
  • The button element is the only element inside the heading element. That is, if there are other visually persistent elements, they are not included inside the heading element.
• If the accordion panel associated with an accordion header is visible, the header button element has aria-expanded set to true. If the panel is not visible, aria-expanded is set to false.
• The accordion header button element has aria-controls set to the ID of the element containing the accordion panel content.
• If the accordion panel associated with an accordion header is visible, and if the accordion does not permit the panel to be collapsed, the header button element has aria-disabled set to true.
• Optionally, each element that serves as a container for panel content has role region and aria-labelledby with a value that refers to the button that controls display of the panel.
  • Avoid using the region role in circumstances that create landmark region proliferation, e.g., in an accordion that contains more than approximately 6 panels that can be expanded at the same time.
  • Role region is especially helpful to the perception of structure by screen reader users when panels contain heading elements or a nested accordion.

Example

Alert Example

Keyboard Interaction

Not applicable.

WAI-ARIA Roles, States, and Properties

The widget has a role of alert.

Example

Alert Dialog Example: A confirmation prompt that demonstrates an alert dialog.

Keyboard Interaction

See the keyboard interaction section for the modal dialog pattern.

WAI-ARIA Roles, States, and Properties

• The element that contains all elements of the dialog, including the alert message and any dialog buttons, has role alertdialog.
• The element with role alertdialog has either:
  • A value for aria-labelledby that refers to the element containing the title of the dialog if the dialog has a visible label.
  • A value for aria-label if the dialog does not have a visible label.
• The element with role alertdialog has a value set for aria-describedby that refers to the element containing the alert message.

Example

Breadcrumb design pattern example

Keyboard Interaction

Not applicable.

WAI-ARIA Roles, States, and Properties

• Breadcrumb trail is contained within a navigation landmark region.
• The landmark region is labelled via aria-label or aria-labelledby.
• The link to the current page has aria-current set to page. If the element representing the current page is not a link, aria-current is optional.

Examples

• Button Examples: Examples of clickable HTML div and span elements made into accessible command and toggle buttons.
• Button Examples (IDL): Examples of clickable HTML div and span elements made into accessible command and toggle buttons. This example uses the IDL Interface.

Keyboard Interaction

When the button has focus:

• Space: Activates the button.
• Enter: Activates the button.
• Following button activation, focus is set depending on the type of action the button performs. For example:
  • If activating the button opens a dialog, the focus moves inside the dialog. (see dialog pattern)
  • If activating the button closes a dialog, focus typically returns to the button that opened the dialog unless the function performed in the dialog context logically leads to a different element. For example, activating a cancel button in a dialog returns focus to the button that opened the dialog. However, if the dialog were confirming the action of deleting the page from which it was opened, the focus would logically move to a new context.
  • If activating the button does not dismiss the current context, then focus typically remains on the button after activation, e.g., an Apply or Recalculate button.
  • If the button action indicates a context change, such as move to next step in a wizard or add another search criteria, then it is often appropriate to move focus to the starting point for that action.
  • If the button is activated with a shortcut key, the focus usually remains in the context from which the shortcut key was activated. For example, if Alt + U were assigned to an "Up" button that moves the currently focused item in a list one position higher in the list, pressing Alt + U when the focus is in the list would not move the focus from the list.

WAI-ARIA Roles, States, and Properties

• The button has role of button.
• The button has an accessible label. By default, the accessible name is computed from any text content inside the button element. However, it can also be provided with aria-labelledby or aria-label.
• If a description of the button's function is present, the button element has aria-describedby set to the ID of the element containing the description.
• When the action associated with a button is unavailable, the button has aria-disabled set to true.
• If the button is a toggle button, it has an aria-pressed state. When the button is toggled on, the value of this state is true, and when toggled off, the state is false.

Examples

• Auto-Rotating Image Carousel with Buttons for Slide Control: A basic image carousel that demonstrates the accessibility features necessary for carousels that rotate automatically on page load and also enables users to choose which slide is displayed with buttons for previous and next slide.
• Auto-Rotating Image Carousel with Tabs for Slide Control: An image carousel that demonstrates accessibility features necessary for carousels that rotate automatically on page load and also enables users to choose which slide is displayed with a set of tabs.

Terms

The following terms are used to describe components of a carousel.

Slide

A single content container within a set of content containers that hold the content to be presented by the carousel.

Rotation Control

An interactive element that stops and starts automatic slide rotation.

Next Slide Control

An interactive element, often styled as an arrow, that displays the next slide in the rotation sequence.

Previous Slide Control

An interactive element, often styled as an arrow, that displays the previous slide in the rotation sequence.

Slide Picker Controls

A group of elements, often styled as small dots, that enable the user to pick a specific slide in the rotation sequence to display.

Keyboard Interaction

• If the carousel has an auto-rotate feature, automatic slide rotation stops when any element in the carousel receives keyboard focus. It does not resume unless the user activates the rotation control.
• Tab and Shift + Tab: Move focus through the interactive elements of the carousel as specified by the page tab sequence -- scripting for Tab is not necessary.
• Button elements implement the keyboard interaction defined in the button pattern. Note: Activating the rotation control, next slide, and previous slide do not move focus, so users may easily repetitively activate them as many times as desired.
• If present, the rotation control is the first element in the Tab sequence inside the carousel. It is essential that it precede the rotating content so it can be easily located.
• If tab elements are used for slide picker controls, they implement the keyboard interaction defined in the Tabs Pattern.

WAI-ARIA Roles, States, and Properties

This section describes the element composition for three styles of carousels:

• Basic: Has rotation, previous slide, and next slide controls but no slide picker controls.
• Tabbed: Has basic controls plus a single tab stop for slide picker controls implemented using the tabs pattern.
• Grouped: Has basic controls plus a series of tab stops in a group of slide picker controls where each control implements the button pattern. Because each slide selector button adds an element to the page tab sequence, this style is the least friendly for keyboard users.

Basic carousel elements

• A carousel container element that encompasses all components of the carousel, including both carousel controls and slides, has either role region or role group. The most appropriate role for the carousel container depends on the information architecture of the page. See the landmark regions guidance to determine whether the carousel warrants being designated as a landmark region.
• The carousel container has the aria-roledescription property set to carousel.
• If the carousel has a visible label, its accessible label is provided by the property aria-labelledby on the carousel container set to the ID of the element containing the visible label. Otherwise, an accessible label is provided by the property aria-label set on the carousel container. Note that since the aria-roledescription is set to "carousel", the label does not contain the word "carousel".
• The rotation control, next slide control, and previous slide control are either native button elements (recommended) or implement the button pattern.
• The rotation control has an accessible label provided by either its inner text or aria-label. The label changes to match the action the button will perform, e.g., "Stop slide rotation" or "Start slide rotation". A label that changes when the button is activated clearly communicates both that slide content can change automatically and when it is doing so. Note that since the label changes, the rotation control does not have any states, e.g., aria-pressed, specified.
• Each slide container has role group with the property aria-roledescription set to slide.
• Each slide has an accessible name:
  • If a slide has a visible label, its accessible label is provided by the property aria-labelledby on the slide container set to the ID of the element containing the visible label.
  • Otherwise, an accessible label is provided by the property aria-label set on the slide container.
  • If unique names that identify the slide content are not available, a number and set size can serve as a meaningful alternative, e.g., "3 of 10". Note: Normally, including set position and size information in an accessible name is not appropriate. An exception is helpful in this implementation because group elements do not support aria-setsize or aria-posinset. The tabbed carousel implementation pattern does not have this limitation.
  • Note that since the aria-roledescription is set to "slide", the label does not contain the word "slide."
• Optionally, an element wrapping the set of slide elements has aria-atomic set to false and aria-live set to:
  • off: if the carousel is automatically rotating.
  • polite: if the carousel is NOT automatically rotating.

Tabbed Carousel Elements

The structure of a tabbed carousel is the same as a basic carousel except that:

• Each slide container has role tabpanel in lieu of group, and it does not have the aria-roledescription property.
• It has slide picker controls implemented using the tabs pattern where:
  • Each control is a tab element, so activating a tab displays the slide associated with that tab.
  • The accessible name of each tab indicates which slide it will display by including the name or number of the slide, e.g., "Slide 3". Slide names are preferable if each slide has a unique name.
  • The set of controls is grouped in a tablist element with an accessible name provided by the value of aria-label that identifies the purpose of the tabs, e.g., "Choose slide to display."
  • The tab, tablist, and tabpanel implement the properties specified in the tabs pattern.

Grouped Carousel Elements

A grouped carousel has the same structure as a basic carousel, but it also includes slide picker controls where:

• The set of slide picker controls is contained in an element with role group.
• The group containing the picker controls has an accessible label provided by the value of aria-label that identifies the purpose of the controls, e.g., "Choose slide to display."
• Each picker control is a native button element (recommended) or implements the button pattern.
• The accessible name of each picker button matches the name of the slide it displays. One technique for accomplishing this is to set aria-labelledby to a value that references the slide group element.
• The picker button representing the currently displayed slide has the property aria-disabled set to true. Note: aria-disabled is preferable to the HTML disabled attribute because this is a circumstance where screen reader users benefit from the disabled button being included in the page Tab sequence.

Examples

• Simple Two-State Checkbox Example: Demonstrates a simple 2-state checkbox.
• Tri-State Checkbox Example: Demonstrates how to make a widget that uses the mixed value for aria-checked and group collection of checkboxes with a field set.

Keyboard Interaction

When the checkbox has focus, pressing the Space key changes the state of the checkbox.

WAI-ARIA Roles, States, and Properties

• The checkbox has role checkbox.
• The checkbox has an accessible label provided by one of the following:
  • Visible text content contained within the element with role checkbox.
  • A visible label referenced by the value of aria-labelledby set on the element with role checkbox.
  • aria-label set on the element with role checkbox.
• When checked, the checkbox element has state aria-checked set to true.
• When not checked, it has state aria-checked set to false.
• When partially checked, it has state aria-checked set to mixed.
• If a set of checkboxes is presented as a logical group with a visible label, the checkboxes are included in an element with role group that has the property aria-labelledby set to the ID of the element containing the label.
• If the presentation includes additional descriptive static text relevant to a checkbox or checkbox group, the checkbox or checkbox group has the property aria-describedby set to the ID of the element containing the description.

Examples

• Select-Only Combobox: A single-select combobox with no text input that is functionally similar to an HTML select element.
• Editable Combobox with Both List and Inline Autocomplete: An editable combobox that demonstrates the autocomplete behavior known as list with inline autocomplete.
• Editable Combobox with List Autocomplete: An editable combobox that demonstrates the autocomplete behavior known as list with manual selection.
• Editable Combobox Without Autocomplete: An editable combobox that demonstrates the behavior associated with aria-autocomplete=none.
• Editable Combobox with Grid Popup: An editable combobox that presents suggestions in a grid, enabling users to navigate descriptive information about each suggestion.
• Date Picker Combobox: An editable date input combobox that opens a dialog containing a calendar grid and buttons for navigating by month and year.

Keyboard Interaction

• Tab: The combobox is in the page Tab sequence.
• Note: The popup indicator icon or button (if present), the popup, and the popup descendants are excluded from the page Tab sequence.

Combobox Keyboard Interaction

When focus is in the combobox:

• Down Arrow: If the popup is available, moves focus into the popup:
  • If the autocomplete behavior automatically selected a suggestion before Down Arrow was pressed, focus is placed on the suggestion following the automatically selected suggestion.
  • Otherwise, places focus on the first focusable element in the popup.
• Up Arrow (Optional): If the popup is available, places focus on the last focusable element in the popup.
• Escape: Dismisses the popup if it is visible. Optionally, if the popup is hidden before Escape is pressed, clears the combobox.
• Enter: If the combobox is editable and an autocomplete suggestion is selected in the popup, accepts the suggestion either by placing the input cursor at the end of the accepted value in the combobox or by performing a default action on the value. For example, in a messaging application, the default action may be to add the accepted value to a list of message recipients and then clear the combobox so the user can add another recipient.
• Printable Characters:
  • If the combobox is editable, type characters in the combobox. Note that some implementations may regard certain characters as invalid and prevent their input.
  • If the combobox is not editable, optionally moves focus to a value that starts with the typed characters.
• If the combobox is editable, it supports standard single line text editing keys appropriate for the device platform (see note below).
• Alt + Down Arrow (Optional): If the popup is available but not displayed, displays the popup without moving focus.
• Alt + Up Arrow (Optional): If the popup is displayed:
  • If the popup contains focus, returns focus to the combobox.
  • Closes the popup.

Listbox Popup Keyboard Interaction

When focus is in a listbox popup:

• Enter: Accepts the focused option in the listbox by closing the popup, placing the accepted value in the combobox, and if the combobox is editable, placing the input cursor at the end of the value.
• Escape: Closes the popup and returns focus to the combobox. Optionally, if the combobox is editable, clears the contents of the combobox.
• Down Arrow: Moves focus to and selects the next option. If focus is on the last option, either returns focus to the combobox or does nothing.
• Up Arrow: Moves focus to and selects the previous option. If focus is on the first option, either returns focus to the combobox or does nothing.
• Right Arrow: If the combobox is editable, returns focus to the combobox without closing the popup and moves the input cursor one character to the right. If the input cursor is on the right-most character, the cursor does not move.
• Left Arrow: If the combobox is editable, returns focus to the combobox without closing the popup and moves the input cursor one character to the left. If the input cursor is on the left-most character, the cursor does not move.
• Home (Optional): Either moves focus to and selects the first option or, if the combobox is editable, returns focus to the combobox and places the cursor on the first character.
• End (Optional): Either moves focus to the last option or, if the combobox is editable, returns focus to the combobox and places the cursor after the last character.
• Any printable character:
  • If the combobox is editable, returns the focus to the combobox without closing the popup and types the character.
  • Otherwise, moves focus to the next option with a name that starts with the characters typed.
• Backspace (Optional): If the combobox is editable, returns focus to the combobox and deletes the character prior to the cursor.
• Delete (Optional): If the combobox is editable, returns focus to the combobox, removes the selected state if a suggestion was selected, and removes the inline autocomplete string if present.

Grid Popup Keyboard Interaction

In a grid popup, each suggested value may be represented by either a single cell or an entire row. See notes below for how this aspect of grid design effects the keyboard interaction design and the way that selection moves in response to focus movements.

• Enter: Accepts the currently selected suggested value by closing the popup, placing the selected value in the combobox, and if the combobox is editable, placing the input cursor at the end of the value.
• Escape: Closes the popup and returns focus to the combobox. Optionally, if the combobox is editable, clears the contents of the combobox.
• Right Arrow: Moves focus one cell to the right. Optionally, if focus is on the right-most cell in the row, focus may move to the first cell in the following row. If focus is on the last cell in the grid, either does nothing or returns focus to the combobox.
• Left Arrow: Moves focus one cell to the left. Optionally, if focus is on the left-most cell in the row, focus may move to the last cell in the previous row. If focus is on the first cell in the grid, either does nothing or returns focus to the combobox.
• Down Arrow: Moves focus one cell down. If focus is in the last row of the grid, either does nothing or returns focus to the combobox.
• Up Arrow: Moves focus one cell up. If focus is in the first row of the grid, either does nothing or returns focus to the combobox.
• Page Down (Optional): Moves focus down an author-determined number of rows, typically scrolling so the bottom row in the currently visible set of rows becomes one of the first visible rows. If focus is in the last row of the grid, focus does not move.
• Page Up (Optional): Moves focus up an author-determined number of rows, typically scrolling so the top row in the currently visible set of rows becomes one of the last visible rows. If focus is in the first row of the grid, focus does not move.
• Home (Optional): Either:
  • Moves focus to the first cell in the row that contains focus. Or, if the grid has fewer than three cells per row or multiple suggested values per row, focus may move to the first cell in the grid.
  • If the combobox is editable, returns focus to the combobox and places the cursor on the first character.
• End (Optional): Either:
  • Moves focus to the last cell in the row that contains focus. Or, if the grid has fewer than three cells per row or multiple suggested values per row, focus may move to the last cell in the grid.
  • If the combobox is editable, returns focus to the combobox and places the cursor after the last character.
• Control + Home (optional): moves focus to the first row.
• Control + End (Optional): moves focus to the last row.
• Any printable character: If the combobox is editable, returns the focus to the combobox without closing the popup and types the character.
• Backspace (Optional): If the combobox is editable, returns focus to the combobox and deletes the character prior to the cursor.
• Delete (Optional): If the combobox is editable, returns focus to the combobox, removes the selected state if a suggestion was selected, and removes the inline autocomplete string if present.

Tree Popup Keyboard Interaction

In some implementations of tree popups, some or all parent nodes may serve as suggestion category labels so may not be selectable values. See notes below for how this aspect of the design effects the way selection moves in response to focus movements.

When focus is in a vertically oriented tree popup:

• Enter: Accepts the currently selected suggested value by closing the popup, placing the selected value in the combobox, and if the combobox is editable, placing the input cursor at the end of the value.
• Escape: Closes the popup and returns focus to the combobox. Optionally, clears the contents of the combobox.
• Right arrow:
  • When focus is on a closed node, opens the node; focus and selection do not move.
  • When focus is on a open node, moves focus to the first child node and selects it if it is selectable.
  • When focus is on an end node, does nothing.
• Left arrow:
  • When focus is on an open node, closes the node.
  • When focus is on a child node that is also either an end node or a closed node, moves focus to its parent node and selects it if it is selectable.
  • When focus is on a root node that is also either an end node or a closed node, does nothing.
• Down Arrow: Moves focus to the next node that is focusable without opening or closing a node and selects it if it is selectable.
• Up Arrow: Moves focus to the previous node that is focusable without opening or closing a node and selects it if it is selectable.
• Home: Moves focus to the first focusable node in the tree without opening or closing a node and selects it if it is selectable.
• End: Moves focus to the last focusable node in the tree without opening or closing a node and selects it if it is selectable.
• Any printable character:
  • If the combobox is editable, returns the focus to the combobox without closing the popup and types the character.
  • Otherwise, moves focus to the next suggested value with a name that starts with the characters typed.

Dialog Popup Keyboard Interaction

When focus is in a dialog popup:

• There are two ways to close the popup and return focus to the combobox:
  1. Perform an action in the dialog, such as activate a button, that specifies a value for the combobox.
  2. Cancel out of the dialog, e.g., press Escape or activate the cancel button in the dialog. Canceling either returns focus to the text box without changing the combobox value or returns focus to the combobox and clears the combobox.
• The dialog implements the keyboard interaction defined in the modal dialog pattern.

WAI-ARIA Roles, States, and Properties

• The element that serves as an input and displays the combobox value has role combobox.
• The combobox element has aria-controls set to a value that refers to the element that serves as the popup. Note that aria-controls only needs to be set when the popup is visible. However, it is valid to reference an element that is not visible.
• The popup is an element that has role listbox, tree, grid, or dialog.
• If the popup has a role other than listbox, the element with role combobox has aria-haspopup set to a value that corresponds to the popup type. That is, aria-haspopup is set to grid, tree, or dialog. Note that elements with role combobox have an implicit aria-haspopup value of listbox.
• When the combobox popup is not visible, the element with role combobox has aria-expanded set to false. When the popup element is visible, aria-expanded is set to true. Note that elements with role combobox have a default value for aria-expanded of false.
• When a combobox receives focus, DOM focus is placed on the combobox element.
• When a descendant of a listbox, grid, or tree popup is focused, DOM focus remains on the combobox and the combobox has aria-activedescendant set to a value that refers to the focused element within the popup.
• For a combobox that controls a listbox, grid, or tree popup, when a suggested value is visually indicated as the currently selected value, the option, gridcell, row, or treeitem containing that value has aria-selected set to true.
• If the combobox has a visible label and the combobox element is an HTML element that can be labelled using the HTML label element (e.g., the input element), it is labeled using the label element. Otherwise, if it has a visible label, the combobox element has aria-labelledby set to a value that refers to the labelling element. Otherwise, the combobox element has a label provided by aria-label.
• The combobox element has aria-autocomplete set to a value that corresponds to its autocomplete behavior:
  • none: When the popup is displayed, the suggested values it contains are the same regardless of the characters typed in the combobox.
  • list: When the popup is triggered, it presents suggested values. If the combobox is editable, the values complete or logically correspond to the characters typed in the combobox.
  • both: When the popup is triggered, it presents suggested values that complete or logically correspond to the characters typed in the combobox. In addition, the portion of the selected suggestion that has not been typed by the user, known as the completion string, appears inline after the input cursor in the combobox. The inline completion string is visually highlighted and has a selected state.

Examples

• Modal Dialog Example: Demonstrates multiple layers of modal dialogs with both small and large amounts of content.
• Date Picker Dialog Example: Demonstrates a dialog containing a calendar grid for choosing a date.

Keyboard Interaction

In the following description, the term tabbable element refers to any element with a tabindex value of zero or greater. Note that values greater than 0 are strongly discouraged.

• When a dialog opens, focus moves to an element inside the dialog. See notes below regarding initial focus placement.
• Tab:
  • Moves focus to the next tabbable element inside the dialog.
  • If focus is on the last tabbable element inside the dialog, moves focus to the first tabbable element inside the dialog.
• Shift + Tab:
  • Moves focus to the previous tabbable element inside the dialog.
  • If focus is on the first tabbable element inside the dialog, moves focus to the last tabbable element inside the dialog.
• Escape: Closes the dialog.

WAI-ARIA Roles, States, and Properties

• The element that serves as the dialog container has a role of dialog.
• All elements required to operate the dialog are descendants of the element that has role dialog.
• The dialog container element has aria-modal set to true.
• The dialog has either:
  • A value set for the aria-labelledby property that refers to a visible dialog title.
  • A label specified by aria-label.
• Optionally, the aria-describedby property is set on the element with the dialog role to indicate which element or elements in the dialog contain content that describes the primary purpose or message of the dialog. Specifying descriptive elements enables screen readers to announce the description along with the dialog title and initially focused element when the dialog opens.

Examples

• Disclosure (Show/Hide) of Image Description
• Disclosure (Show/Hide) of Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
• Disclosure (Show/Hide) for Navigation Menus

Keyboard Interaction

When the disclosure control has focus:

• Enter: activates the disclosure control and toggles the visibility of the disclosure content.
• Space: activates the disclosure control and toggles the visibility of the disclosure content.

WAI-ARIA Roles, States, and Properties

• The element that shows and hides the content has role button.
• When the content is visible, the element with role button has aria-expanded set to true. When the content area is hidden, it is set to false.
• Optionally, the element with role button has a value specified for aria-controls that refers to the element that contains all the content that is shown or hidden.

Example

Example Implementation of Feed Pattern

Keyboard Interaction

The feed pattern is not based on a desktop GUI widget so the feed role is not associated with any well-established keyboard conventions. Supporting the following, or a similar, interface is recommended.

When focus is inside the feed:

• Page Down: Move focus to next article.
• Page Up: Move focus to previous article.
• Control + End: Move focus to the first focusable element after the feed.
• Control + Home: Move focus to the first focusable element before the feed.

WAI-ARIA Roles, States, and Properties

• The element that contains the set of feed articles has role feed.
• If the feed has a visible label, the feed element has aria-labelledby referring to the element containing the title. Otherwise, the feed element has a label specified with aria-label.
• Each unit of content in a feed is contained in an element with role article. All content inside the feed is contained in an article element.
• Each article element has aria-labelledby referring to elements inside the article that can serve as a distinguishing label.
• It is optional but strongly recommended for each article element to have aria-describedby referring to one or more elements inside the article that serve as the primary content of the article.
• Each article element has aria-posinset set to a value that represents its position in the feed.
• Each article element has aria-setsize set to a value that represents either the total number of articles that have been loaded or the total number in the feed, depending on which value is deemed more helpful to users. If the total number in the feed is undetermined, it can be represented by a aria-setsize value of -1.
• When article elements are being added to or removed from the feed container, and if the operation requires multiple DOM operations, the feed element has aria-busy set to true during the update operation. Note that it is extremely important that aria-busy is set to false when the operation is complete or the changes may not become visible to some assistive technology users.

Examples

• Layout Grid Examples: Three example implementations of grids that are used to lay out widgets, including a collection of navigation links, a message recipients list, and a set of search results.
• Data Grid Examples: Three example implementations of grid that include features relevant to presenting tabular information, such as content editing, sort, and column hiding.
• Advanced Data Grid Example: Example of a grid with behaviors and features similar to a typical spreadsheet, including cell and row selection.

Data Grids For Presenting Tabular Information

A grid can be used to present tabular information that has column titles, row titles, or both. The grid pattern is particularly useful if the tabular information is editable or interactive. For example, when data elements are links to more information, rather than presenting them in a static table and including the links in the tab sequence, implementing the grid pattern provides users with intuitive and efficient keyboard navigation of the grid contents as well as a shorter tab sequence for the page. A grid may also offer functions, such as cell content editing, selection, cut, copy, and paste.

In a grid, every cell contains a focusable element or is itself focusable, regardless of whether the cell content is editable or interactive. There is one exception: if column or row header cells do not provide functions, such as sort or filter, they do not need to be focusable. One reason it is important for all cells to be able to receive or contain keyboard focus is that screen readers will typically be in their application reading mode, rather than their document reading mode, when users are interacting with the grid. While in application mode, a screen reader user hears only focusable elements and content that labels focusable elements. So, screen reader users may unknowingly overlook elements contained in a grid that are either not focusable or not used to label a column or row.

Layout Grids for Grouping Widgets

The grid pattern can be used to group a set of interactive elements, such as links, buttons, or checkboxes. Since only one element in the entire grid is included in the tab sequence, grouping with a grid can dramatically reduce the number of tab stops on a page. This is especially valuable if scrolling through a list of elements dynamically loads more of those elements from a large data set, such as in a continuous list of suggested products on a shopping site. If elements in a list like this were in the tab sequence, keyboard users are effectively trapped in the list. If any elements in the group also have associated elements that appear on hover, the grid pattern is also useful for providing keyboard access to those contextual elements of the user interface.

Unlike grids used to present data, A grid used for layout does not necessarily have header cells for labelling rows or columns and might contain only a single row or a single column. Even if it has multiple rows and columns, it may present a single, logically homogenous set of elements. For example, a list of recipients for a message may be a grid where each cell contains a link that represents a recipient. The grid may initially have a single row but then wrap into multiple rows as recipients are added. In such circumstances, grid navigation keys may also wrap so the user can read the list from beginning to end by pressing either Right Arrow or Down Arrow. While This type of focus movement wrapping can be very helpful in a layout grid, it would be disorienting if used in a data grid, especially for users of assistive technologies.

Because arrow keys are used to move focus inside of a grid, a grid is both easier to build and use if the components it contains do not require the arrow keys to operate. If a cell contains an element like a listbox, then an extra key command to focus and activate the listbox is needed as well as a command for restoring the grid navigation functionality. Approaches to supporting this need are described in the section on Editing and Navigating Inside a Cell.

Keyboard Interaction - Setting Focus and Navigating Inside Cells

This section describes two important aspects of keyboard interaction design shared by both data and layout grid patterns:

1. Choosing whether a cell or an element inside a cell receives focus in response to grid navigation key events.
2. Enabling grid navigation keys to be used to interact with elements inside of a cell.

WAI-ARIA Roles, States, and Properties

• The grid container has role grid.
• Each row container has role row and is either a DOM descendant of or owned by the grid element or an element with role rowgroup.
• Each cell is either a DOM descendant of or owned by a row element and has one of the following roles:
  • columnheader if the cell contains a title or header information for the column.
  • rowheader if the cell contains title or header information for the row.
  • gridcell if the cell does not contain column or row header information.
• If there is an element in the user interface that serves as a label for the grid, aria-labelledby is set on the grid element with a value that refers to the labelling element. Otherwise, a label is specified for the grid element using aria-label.
• If the grid has a caption or description, aria-describedby is set on the grid element with a value referring to the element containing the description.
• If the grid provides sort functions, aria-sort is set to an appropriate value on the header cell element for the sorted column or row as described in the section on grid and table properties.
• If the grid supports selection, when a cell or row is selected, the selected element has aria-selected set true. If the grid supports column selection and a column is selected, all cells in the column have aria-selected set to true.
• If the grid provides content editing functionality and contains cells that may have edit capabilities disabled in certain conditions, aria-readonly may be set true on cells where editing is disabled. If edit functions are disabled for all cells, aria-readonly may be set true on the grid element. Grids that do not provide editing functions do not include the aria-readonly attribute on any of their elements.
• If there are conditions where some rows or columns are hidden or not present in the DOM, e.g., data is dynamically loaded when scrolling or the grid provides functions for hiding rows or columns, the following properties are applied as described in the section on grid and table properties.
  • aria-colcount or aria-rowcount is set to the total number of columns or rows, respectively.
  • aria-colindex or aria-rowindex is set to the position of a cell within a row or column, respectively.
• If the grid includes cells that span multiple rows or multiple columns, and if the grid role is NOT applied to an HTML table element, then aria-rowspan or aria-colspan is applied as described in grid and table properties.

Examples

Link Examples: Link widgets constructed from HTML span and img elements.

Keyboard Interaction

• Enter: Executes the link and moves focus to the link target.
• Shift + F10 (Optional): Opens a context menu for the link.

WAI-ARIA Roles, States, and Properties

The element containing the link text or graphic has role of link.

Examples

• Scrollable Listbox Example: Single-select listbox that scrolls to reveal more options, similar to HTML select with size attribute greater than one.
• Collapsible Dropdown Listbox Example: Single-select collapsible listbox that expands when activated, similar to HTML select with the attribute size="1".
• Example Listboxes with Rearrangeable Options: Examples of both single-select and multi-select listboxes with accompanying toolbars where options can be added, moved, and removed.
• Listbox Example with Grouped Options: Single-select listbox with grouped options, similar to an HTML select with optgroup children.

Keyboard Interaction

For a vertically oriented listbox:

• When a single-select listbox receives focus:
  • If none of the options are selected before the listbox receives focus, the first option receives focus. Optionally, the first option may be automatically selected.
  • If an option is selected before the listbox receives focus, focus is set on the selected option.
• When a multi-select listbox receives focus:
  • If none of the options are selected before the listbox receives focus, focus is set on the first option and there is no automatic change in the selection state.
  • If one or more options are selected before the listbox receives focus, focus is set on the first option in the list that is selected.
• Down Arrow: Moves focus to the next option. Optionally, in a single-select listbox, selection may also move with focus.
• Up Arrow: Moves focus to the previous option. Optionally, in a single-select listbox, selection may also move with focus.
• Home (Optional): Moves focus to first option. Optionally, in a single-select listbox, selection may also move with focus. Supporting this key is strongly recommended for lists with more than five options.
• End (Optional): Moves focus to last option. Optionally, in a single-select listbox, selection may also move with focus. Supporting this key is strongly recommended for lists with more than five options.
• Type-ahead is recommended for all listboxes, especially those with more than seven options:
  • Type a character: focus moves to the next item with a name that starts with the typed character.
  • Type multiple characters in rapid succession: focus moves to the next item with a name that starts with the string of characters typed.
• Multiple Selection: Authors may implement either of two interaction models to support multiple selection: a recommended model that does not require the user to hold a modifier key, such as Shift or Control, while navigating the list or an alternative model that does require modifier keys to be held while navigating in order to avoid losing selection states.
  • Recommended selection model -- holding modifier keys is not necessary:
    • Space: changes the selection state of the focused option.
    • Shift + Down Arrow (Optional): Moves focus to and toggles the selected state of the next option.
    • Shift + Up Arrow (Optional): Moves focus to and toggles the selected state of the previous option.
    • Shift + Space (Optional): Selects contiguous items from the most recently selected item to the focused item.
    • Control + Shift + Home (Optional): Selects the focused option and all options up to the first option. Optionally, moves focus to the first option.
    • Control + Shift + End (Optional): Selects the focused option and all options down to the last option. Optionally, moves focus to the last option.
    • Control + A (Optional): Selects all options in the list. Optionally, if all options are selected, it may also unselect all options.
  • Alternative selection model -- moving focus without holding a Shift or Control modifier unselects all selected nodes except the focused node:
    • Shift + Down Arrow: Moves focus to and toggles the selection state of the next option.
    • Shift + Up Arrow: Moves focus to and toggles the selection state of the previous option.
    • Control + Down Arrow: Moves focus to the next option without changing its selection state.
    • Control + Up Arrow: Moves focus to the previous option without changing its selection state.
    • Control + Space Changes the selection state of the focused option.
    • Shift + Space (Optional): Selects contiguous items from the most recently selected item to the focused item.
    • Control + Shift + Home (Optional): Selects the focused option and all options up to the first option. Optionally, moves focus to the first option.
    • Control + Shift + End (Optional): Selects the focused option and all options down to the last option. Optionally, moves focus to the last option.
    • Control + A (Optional): Selects all options in the list. Optionally, if all options are selected, it may also unselect all options.

WAI-ARIA Roles, States, and Properties

• An element that contains or owns all the listbox options has role listbox.
• Each option in the listbox has role option and is a DOM descendant of the element with role listbox or is referenced by an aria-owns property on the listbox element.
• If the listbox is not part of another widget, then it has a visible label referenced by aria-labelledby on the element with role listbox.
• In a single-select listbox, the selected option has aria-selected set to true.
• if the listbox supports multiple selection:
  • The element with role listbox has aria-multiselectable set to true.
  • All selected options have aria-selected set to true.
  • All options that are not selected have aria-selected set to false.
• If the complete set of available options is not present in the DOM due to dynamic loading as the user scrolls, their aria-setsize and aria-posinset attributes are set appropriately.
• If options are arranged horizontally, the element with role listbox has aria-orientation set to horizontal. The default value of aria-orientation for listbox is vertical.

Examples

• Navigation Menubar Example: Demonstrates a menubar that provides site navigation.
• Editor Menubar Example: Demonstrates menu radios and menu checkboxes in submenus of a menubar that provides text formatting commands for a text field.

Keyboard Interaction

The following description of keyboard behaviors assumes:

1. A horizontal menubar containing several menuitem, menuitemradio, or menuitemcheckbox elements.
2. Some menuitem elements in the menubar have child submenus that contain vertically arranged items.
3. Some of the menuitem elements in the submenus have child submenus with items that are also vertically arranged.

When reading the following descriptions, also keep in mind that:

1. Focusable elements, which may have role menuitem, menuitemradio, or menuitemcheckbox, are referred to as items.
2. If a behavior applies to only certain types of items, e.g., menuitem elements, the specific role name is used.
3. Submenus, also known as popup menus, are elements with role menu.
4. Except where noted, menus opened from a menubutton behave the same as menus opened from a menubar.

• When a menu opens, or when a menubar receives focus, keyboard focus is placed on the first item. All items are focusable as described in § 6.6 Keyboard Navigation Inside Components.
• Enter:
  • When focus is on a menuitem that has a submenu, opens the submenu and places focus on its first item.
  • Otherwise, activates the item and closes the menu.
• Space:
  • (Optional): When focus is on a menuitemcheckbox, changes the state without closing the menu.
  • (Optional): When focus is on a menuitemradio that is not checked, without closing the menu, checks the focused menuitemradio and unchecks any other checked menuitemradio element in the same group.
  • (Optional): When focus is on a menuitem that has a submenu, opens the submenu and places focus on its first item.
  • (Optional): When focus is on a menuitem that does not have a submenu, activates the menuitem and closes the menu.
• Down Arrow:
  • When focus is on a menuitem in a menubar, and that menuitem has a submenu, opens the submenu and places focus on the first item in the submenu.
  • When focus is in a menu, moves focus to the next item, optionally wrapping from the last to the first.
• Up Arrow:
  • When focus is in a menu, moves focus to the previous item, optionally wrapping from the first to the last.
  • (Optional): When focus is on a menuitem in a menubar, and that menuitem has a submenu, opens the submenu and places focus on the last item in the submenu.
• Right Arrow:
  • When focus is in a menubar, moves focus to the next item, optionally wrapping from the last to the first.
  • When focus is in a menu and on a menuitem that has a submenu, opens the submenu and places focus on its first item.
  • When focus is in a menu and on an item that does not have a submenu, performs the following 3 actions:
    1. Closes the submenu and any parent menus.
    2. Moves focus to the next item in the menubar.
    3. If focus is now on a menuitem with a submenu, either: (Recommended) opens the submenu of that menuitem without moving focus into the submenu, or opens the submenu of that menuitem and places focus on the first item in the submenu.
    Note that if the menubar were not present, e.g., the menus were opened from a menubutton, Right Arrow would not do anything when focus is on an item that does not have a submenu.
• Left Arrow:
  • When focus is in a menubar, moves focus to the previous item, optionally wrapping from the first to the last.
  • When focus is in a submenu of an item in a menu, closes the submenu and returns focus to the parent menuitem.
  • When focus is in a submenu of an item in a menubar, performs the following 3 actions:
    1. Closes the submenu.
    2. Moves focus to the previous item in the menubar.
    3. If focus is now on a menuitem with a submenu, either: (Recommended) opens the submenu of that menuitem without moving focus into the submenu, or opens the submenu of that menuitem and places focus on the first item in the submenu.
• Home: If arrow key wrapping is not supported, moves focus to the first item in the current menu or menubar.
• End: If arrow key wrapping is not supported, moves focus to the last item in the current menu or menubar.
• Any key that corresponds to a printable character (Optional): Move focus to the next item in the current menu whose label begins with that printable character.
• Escape: Close the menu that contains focus and return focus to the element or context, e.g., menu button or parent menuitem, from which the menu was opened.
• Tab: Moves focus to the next element in the tab sequence, and if the item that had focus is not in a menubar, closes its menu and all open parent menu containers.
• Shift + Tab: Moves focus to the previous element in the tab sequence, and if the item that had focus is not in a menubar, closes its menu and all open parent menu containers.

WAI-ARIA Roles, States, and Properties

• A menu is a container of items that represent choices. The element serving as the menu has a role of either menu or menubar.
• The items contained in a menu are child elements of the containing menu or menubar and have any of the following roles:
  • menuitem
  • menuitemcheckbox
  • menuitemradio
• If activating a menuitem opens a submenu, the menuitem is known as a parent menuitem. A submenu's menu element is:
  • Contained inside the same menu element as its parent menuitem.
  • Is the sibling element immediately following its parent menuitem.
• A parent menuitem has aria-haspopup set to either menu or true.
• A parent menuitem has aria-expanded set to false when its child menu is not visible and set to true when the child menu is visible.
• One of the following approaches is used to enable scripts to move focus among items in a menu as described in § 6.6 Keyboard Navigation Inside Components:
  • The menu container has tabindex set to -1 or 0 and aria-activedescendant set to the ID of the focused item.
  • Each item in the menu has tabindex set to -1, except in a menubar, where the first item has tabindex set to 0.
• When a menuitemcheckbox or menuitemradio is checked, aria-checked is set to true.
• When a menu item is disabled, aria-disabled is set to true.
• Items in a menu may be divided into groups by placing an element with a role of separator between groups. For example, this technique should be used when a menu contains a set of menuitemradio items.
• All separators should have aria-orientation consistent with the separator's orientation.
• If a menubar has a visible label, the element with role menubar has aria-labelledby set to a value that refers to the labelling element. Otherwise, the menubar element has a label provided by aria-label.
• If a menubar is vertically oriented, it has aria-orientation set to vertical. The default value of aria-orientation for a menubar is horizontal.
• An element with role menu either has:
  • aria-labelledby set to a value that refers to the menuitem or button that controls its display.
  • A label provided by aria-label.
• If a menu is horizontally oriented, it has aria-orientation set to horizontal. The default value of aria-orientation for a menu is vertical.

Examples

• Navigation Menu Button: A menu button made from an HTML a element that opens a menu of items that behave as links.
• Action Menu Button Example Using element.focus(): A menu button made from an HTML button element that opens a menu of actions or commands where focus in the menu is managed using element.focus().
• Action Menu Button Example Using aria-activedescendant: A button that opens a menu of actions or commands where focus in the menu is managed using aria-activedescendant.

Keyboard Interaction

• With focus on the button:
  • Enter: opens the menu and places focus on the first menu item.
  • Space: Opens the menu and places focus on the first menu item.
  • (Optional) Down Arrow: opens the menu and moves focus to the first menu item.
  • (Optional) Up Arrow: opens the menu and moves focus to the last menu item.
• The keyboard behaviors needed after the menu is open are described in § 3.15 Menu or Menu bar.

WAI-ARIA Roles, States, and Properties

• The element that opens the menu has role button.
• The element with role button has aria-haspopup set to either menu or true.
• When the menu is displayed, the element with role button has aria-expanded set to true. When the menu is hidden, it is recommended that aria-expanded is not present. If aria-expanded is specified when the menu is hidden, it is set to false.
• The element that contains the menu items displayed by activating the button has role menu.
• Optionally, the element with role button has a value specified for aria-controls that refers to the element with role menu.
• Additional roles, states, and properties needed for the menu element are described in § 3.15 Menu or Menu bar.

Example

Meter Example

Keyboard Interaction

Not applicable.

WAI-ARIA Roles, States, and Properties

• The element serving as the meter has a role of meter.
• The meter has aria-valuenow set to a decimal value between aria-valuemin and aria-valuemax representing the current value of the meter.
• The meter has aria-valuemin set to a decimal value less than aria-valuemax.
• The meter has aria-valuemax set to a decimal value greater than aria-valuemin.
• Assistive technologies often present aria-valuenow as a percentage. If conveying the value of the meter only in terms of a percentage would not be user friendly, the aria-valuetext property is set to a string that makes the meter value understandable. For example, a battery meter value might be conveyed as aria-valuetext="50% (6 hours) remaining".
• If the meter has a visible label, it is referenced by aria-labelledby on the element with role meter. Otherwise, the element with role meter has a label provided by aria-label.

Examples

• Radio Group Example Using Roving tabindex
• Radio Group Example Using aria-activedescendant

Keyboard Interaction

WAI-ARIA Roles, States, and Properties

• The radio buttons are contained in or owned by an element with role radiogroup.
• Each radio button element has role radio.
• If a radio button is checked, the radio element has aria-checked set to true. If it is not checked, it has aria-checked set to false.
• Each radio element is labelled by its content, has a visible label referenced by aria-labelledby, or has a label specified with aria-label.
• The radiogroup element has a visible label referenced by aria-labelledby or has a label specified with aria-label.
• If elements providing additional information about either the radio group or each radio button are present, those elements are referenced by the radiogroup element or radio elements with the aria-describedby property.

Examples

• Horizontal Slider Examples: Demonstrates using three horizontally aligned sliders to make a color picker.
• Slider Examples with aria-orientation and aria-valuetext: Three thermostat control sliders that demonstrate using aria-orientation and aria-valuetext.

Keyboard Interaction

• Right Arrow: Increase the value of the slider by one step.
• Up Arrow: Increase the value of the slider by one step.
• Left Arrow: Decrease the value of the slider by one step.
• Down Arrow: Decrease the value of the slider by one step.
• Home: Set the slider to the first allowed value in its range.
• End: Set the slider to the last allowed value in its range.
• Page Up (Optional): Increment the slider by an amount larger than the step change made by Up Arrow.
• Page Down (Optional): Decrement the slider by an amount larger than the step change made by Down Arrow.

WAI-ARIA Roles, States, and Properties

• The element serving as the focusable slider control has role slider.
• The slider element has the aria-valuenow property set to a decimal value representing the current value of the slider.
• The slider element has the aria-valuemin property set to a decimal value representing the minimum allowed value of the slider.
• The slider element has the aria-valuemax property set to a decimal value representing the maximum allowed value of the slider.
• If the value of aria-valuenow is not user-friendly, e.g., the day of the week is represented by a number, the aria-valuetext property is set to a string that makes the slider value understandable, e.g., "Monday".
• If the slider has a visible label, it is referenced by aria-labelledby on the slider element. Otherwise, the slider element has a label provided by aria-label.
• If the slider is vertically oriented, it has aria-orientation set to vertical. The default value of aria-orientation for a slider is horizontal.

Example

Multi-Thumb Slider Examples: Demonstrates two-thumb sliders for picking price ranges for an airline flight and hotel reservation.

Keyboard Interaction

• Each thumb is in the page tab sequence and has the same keyboard interaction as a single-thumb slider.
• The tab order remains constant regardless of thumb value and visual position within the slider. For example, if the value of a thumb changes such that it moves past one of the other thumbs, the tab order does not change.

WAI-ARIA Roles, States, and Properties

• Each element serving as a focusable slider thumb has role slider.
• Each slider element has the aria-valuenow property set to a decimal value representing the current value of the slider.
• Each slider element has the aria-valuemin property set to a decimal value representing the minimum allowed value of the slider.
• Each slider element has the aria-valuemax property set to a decimal value representing the maximum allowed value of the slider.
• When the range (e.g. minimum and/or maximum value) of another slider is dependent on the current value of a slider, the values of aria-valuemin or aria-valuemax of the dependent sliders are updated when the value changes.
• If a value of aria-valuenow is not user-friendly, e.g., the day of the week is represented by a number, the aria-valuetext property is set to a string that makes the slider value understandable, e.g., "Monday".
• If a slider has a visible label, it is referenced by aria-labelledby on the slider element. Otherwise, the slider element has a label provided by aria-label.
• If a slider is vertically oriented, it has aria-orientation set to vertical. The default value of aria-orientation for a slider is horizontal.

Example

Date Picker Spin Button Example: Illustrates a date picker made from three spin buttons for day, month, and year.

Keyboard Interaction

• Up Arrow: Increases the value.
• Down Arrow: Decreases the value.
• Home: If the spinbutton has a minimum value, sets the value to its minimum.
• End: If the spinbutton has a maximum value, sets the value to its maximum.
• Page Up (Optional): Increases the value by a larger step than Up Arrow.
• Page Down (Optional): Decreases the value by a larger step than Down Arrow.
• If the spinbutton text field allows directly editing the value, the following keys are supported:
  • Standard single line text editing keys appropriate for the device platform (see note below).
  • Printable Characters: Type characters in the textbox. Note that many implementations allow only certain characters as part of the value and prevent input of any other characters. For example, an hour-and-minute spinner would allow only integer values from 0 to 59, the colon ':', and the letters 'AM' and 'PM'. Any other character input does not change the contents of the text field nor the value of the spinbutton.

WAI-ARIA Roles, States, and Properties

• The focusable element serving as the spinbutton has role spinbutton. This is typically an element that supports text input.
• The spinbutton element has the aria-valuenow property set to a decimal value representing the current value of the spinbutton.
• The spinbutton element has the aria-valuemin property set to a decimal value representing the minimum allowed value of the spinbutton if it has a known minimum value.
• The spinbutton element has the aria-valuemax property set to a decimal value representing the maximum allowed value of the spinbutton if it has a known maximum value.
• If the value of aria-valuenow is not user-friendly, e.g., the day of the week is represented by a number, the aria-valuetext property is set on the spinbutton element to a string that makes the spinbutton value understandable, e.g., "Monday".
• If the spinbutton has a visible label, it is referenced by aria-labelledby on the spinbutton element. Otherwise, the spinbutton element has a label provided by aria-label.
• The spinbutton element has aria-invalid set to true if the value is outside the allowed range. Note that most implementations prevent input of invalid values, but in some scenarios, blocking all invalid input may not be practical.

Examples

Table Example: ARIA table made using HTML div and span elements.

Keyboard Interaction

Not applicable.

WAI-ARIA Roles, States, and Properties

• The table container has role table.
• Each row container has role row and is either a DOM descendant of or owned by the table element or an element with role rowgroup.
• Each cell is either a DOM descendant of or owned by a row element and has one of the following roles:
  • columnheader if the cell contains a title or header information for the column.
  • rowheader if the cell contains title or header information for the row.
  • cell if the cell does not contain column or row header information.
• If there is an element in the user interface that serves as a label for the table, aria-labelledby is set on the table element with a value that refers to the labelling element. Otherwise, a label is specified for the table element using aria-label.
• If the table has a caption or description, aria-describedby is set on the table element with a value referring to the element containing the description.
• If the table contains sortable columns or rows, aria-sort is set to an appropriate value on the header cell element for the sorted column or row as described in the section on grid and table properties.
• If there are conditions where some rows or columns are hidden or not present in the DOM, e.g., there are widgets on the page for hiding rows or columns, the following properties are applied as described in the section on grid and table properties.
  • aria-colcount or aria-rowcount is set to the total number of columns or rows, respectively.
  • aria-colindex or aria-rowindex is set to the position of a cell within a row or column, respectively.
• If the table includes cells that span multiple rows or multiple columns, then aria-rowspan or aria-colspan is applied as described in grid and table properties.

Examples

• Tabs With Automatic Activation: A tabs widget where tabs are automatically activated and their panel is displayed when they receive focus.
• Tabs With Manual Activation: A tabs widget where users activate a tab and display its panel by pressing Space or Enter.

Keyboard Interaction

For the tab list:

• Tab:
  • When focus moves into the tab list, places focus on the active tab element.
  • When the tab list contains the focus, moves focus to the next element in the page tab sequence outside the tablist, which is the tabpanel unless the first element containing meaningful content inside the tabpanel is focusable.
• When focus is on a tab element in a horizontal tab list:
  • Left Arrow: moves focus to the previous tab. If focus is on the first tab, moves focus to the last tab. Optionally, activates the newly focused tab (See note below).
  • Right Arrow: Moves focus to the next tab. If focus is on the last tab element, moves focus to the first tab. Optionally, activates the newly focused tab (See note below).
• When focus is on a tab in a tablist with either horizontal or vertical orientation:
  • Space or Enter: Activates the tab if it was not activated automatically on focus.
  • Home (Optional): Moves focus to the first tab. Optionally, activates the newly focused tab (See note below).
  • End (Optional): Moves focus to the last tab. Optionally, activates the newly focused tab (See note below).
  • Shift + F10: If the tab has an associated popup menu, opens the menu.
  • Delete (Optional): If deletion is allowed, deletes (closes) the current tab element and its associated tab panel, sets focus on the tab following the tab that was closed, and optionally activates the newly focused tab. If there is not a tab that followed the tab that was deleted, e.g., the deleted tab was the right-most tab in a left-to-right horizontal tab list, sets focus on and optionally activates the tab that preceded the deleted tab. If the application allows all tabs to be deleted, and the user deletes the last remaining tab in the tab list, the application moves focus to another element that provides a logical work flow. As an alternative to Delete, or in addition to supporting Delete, the delete function is available in a context menu.

WAI-ARIA Roles, States, and Properties

• The element that serves as the container for the set of tabs has role tablist.
• Each element that serves as a tab has role tab and is contained within the element with role tablist.
• Each element that contains the content panel for a tab has role tabpanel.
• If the tab list has a visible label, the element with role tablist has aria-labelledby set to a value that refers to the labelling element. Otherwise, the tablist element has a label provided by aria-label.
• Each element with role tab has the property aria-controls referring to its associated tabpanel element.
• The active tab element has the state aria-selected set to true and all other tab elements have it set to false.
• Each element with role tabpanel has the property aria-labelledby referring to its associated tab element.
• If a tab element has a popup menu, it has the property aria-haspopup set to either menu or true.
• If the tablist element is vertically oriented, it has the property aria-orientation set to vertical. The default value of aria-orientation for a tablist element is horizontal.

Example

Toolbar Example: A toolbar that uses roving tabindex to manage focus and contains several types of controls, including toggle buttons, radio buttons, a menu button, a spin button, a checkbox, and a link.

Keyboard Interaction

• Tab and Shift + Tab: Move focus into and out of the toolbar. When focus moves into a toolbar:
  • If focus is moving into the toolbar for the first time, focus is set on the first control that is not disabled.
  • If the toolbar has previously contained focus, focus is optionally set on the control that last had focus. Otherwise, it is set on the first control that is not disabled.
• For a horizontal toolbar (the default):
  • Left Arrow: Moves focus to the previous control. Optionally, focus movement may wrap from the first element to the last element.
  • Right Arrow: Moves focus to the next control. Optionally, focus movement may wrap from the last element to the first element.
• Home (Optional): Moves focus to first element.
• End (Optional): Moves focus to last element.

WAI-ARIA Roles, States, and Properties

• The element that serves as the toolbar container has role toolbar.
• If the toolbar has a visible label, it is referenced by aria-labelledby on the toolbar element. Otherwise, the toolbar element has a label provided by aria-label.
• If the controls are arranged vertically, the toolbar element has aria-orientation set to vertical. The default orientation is horizontal.

Example

Work to develop a tooltip example is tracked by issue 127.

Keyboard Interaction

Escape: Dismisses the Tooltip.

WAI-ARIA Roles, States, and Properties

• The element that serves as the tooltip container has role tooltip.
• The element that triggers the tooltip references the tooltip element with aria-describedby.

Examples

• File Directory Treeview Example Using Computed Properties: A file selector tree that demonstrates browser support for automatically computing aria-level, aria-posinset and aria-setsize based on DOM structure.
• File Directory Treeview Example Using Declared Properties: A file selector tree that demonstrates how to explicitly define values for aria-level, aria-posinset and aria-setsize.
• Navigation Treeview Example Using Computed Properties: A tree that provides navigation to a set of web pages and demonstrates browser support for automatically computing aria-level, aria-posinset and aria-setsize based on DOM structure.
• Navigation Treeview Example Using Declared Properties: A tree that provides navigation to a set of web pages and demonstrates how to explicitly define values for aria-level, aria-posinset and aria-setsize.

Keyboard Interaction

For a vertically oriented tree:

• When a single-select tree receives focus:
  • If none of the nodes are selected before the tree receives focus, focus is set on the first node.
  • If a node is selected before the tree receives focus, focus is set on the selected node.
• When a multi-select tree receives focus:
  • If none of the nodes are selected before the tree receives focus, focus is set on the first node.
  • If one or more nodes are selected before the tree receives focus, focus is set on the first selected node.
• Right arrow:
  • When focus is on a closed node, opens the node; focus does not move.
  • When focus is on a open node, moves focus to the first child node.
  • When focus is on an end node, does nothing.
• Left arrow:
  • When focus is on an open node, closes the node.
  • When focus is on a child node that is also either an end node or a closed node, moves focus to its parent node.
  • When focus is on a root node that is also either an end node or a closed node, does nothing.
• Down Arrow: Moves focus to the next node that is focusable without opening or closing a node.
• Up Arrow: Moves focus to the previous node that is focusable without opening or closing a node.
• Home: Moves focus to the first node in the tree without opening or closing a node.
• End: Moves focus to the last node in the tree that is focusable without opening a node.
• Enter: activates a node, i.e., performs its default action. For parent nodes, one possible default action is to open or close the node. In single-select trees where selection does not follow focus (see note below), the default action is typically to select the focused node.
• Type-ahead is recommended for all trees, especially for trees with more than 7 root nodes:
  • Type a character: focus moves to the next node with a name that starts with the typed character.
  • Type multiple characters in rapid succession: focus moves to the next node with a name that starts with the string of characters typed.
• * (Optional): Expands all siblings that are at the same level as the current node.
• Selection in multi-select trees: Authors may implement either of two interaction models to support multiple selection: a recommended model that does not require the user to hold a modifier key, such as Shift or Control, while navigating the list or an alternative model that does require modifier keys to be held while navigating in order to avoid losing selection states.
  • Recommended selection model -- holding a modifier key while moving focus is not necessary:
    • Space: Toggles the selection state of the focused node.
    • Shift + Down Arrow (Optional): Moves focus to and toggles the selection state of the next node.
    • Shift + Up Arrow (Optional): Moves focus to and toggles the selection state of the previous node.
    • Shift + Space (Optional): Selects contiguous nodes from the most recently selected node to the current node.
    • Control + Shift + Home (Optional): Selects the node with focus and all nodes up to the first node. Optionally, moves focus to the first node.
    • Control + Shift + End (Optional): Selects the node with focus and all nodes down to the last node. Optionally, moves focus to the last node.
    • Control + A (Optional): Selects all nodes in the tree. Optionally, if all nodes are selected, it can also unselect all nodes.
  • Alternative selection model -- Moving focus without holding the Shift or Control modifier unselects all selected nodes except for the focused node:
    • Shift + Down Arrow: Moves focus to and toggles the selection state of the next node.
    • Shift + Up Arrow: Moves focus to and toggles the selection state of the previous node.
    • Control + Down Arrow: Without changing the selection state, moves focus to the next node.
    • Control + Up Arrow: Without changing the selection state, moves focus to the previous node.
    • Control + Space: Toggles the selection state of the focused node.
    • Shift + Space (Optional): Selects contiguous nodes from the most recently selected node to the current node.
    • Control + Shift + Home (Optional): Selects the node with focus and all nodes up to the first node. Optionally, moves focus to the first node.
    • Control + Shift + End (Optional): Selects the node with focus and all nodes down to the last node. Optionally, moves focus to the last node.
    • Control + A (Optional): Selects all nodes in the tree. Optionally, if all nodes are selected, it can also unselect all nodes.

WAI-ARIA Roles, States, and Properties

• All tree nodes are contained in or owned by an element with role tree.
• Each element serving as a tree node has role treeitem.
• Each root node is contained in the element with role tree or referenced by an aria-owns property set on the tree element.
• Each parent node contains or owns an element with role group.
• Each child node is contained in or owned by an element with role group that is contained in or owned by the node that serves as the parent of that child.
• Each element with role treeitem that serves as a parent node has aria-expanded set to false when the node is in a closed state and set to true when the node is in an open state. End nodes do not have the aria-expanded attribute because, if they were to have it, they would be incorrectly described to assistive technologies as parent nodes.
• If the tree supports selection of more than one node, the element with role tree has aria-multiselectable set to true. Otherwise, aria-multiselectable is either set to false or the default value of false is implied.
• If the tree does not support multiple selection, aria-selected is set to true for the selected node and it is not present on any other node in the tree.
• if the tree supports multiple selection:
  • All selected nodes have aria-selected set to true.
  • All nodes that are selectable but not selected have aria-selected set to false.
  • If the tree contains nodes that are not selectable, those nodes do not have the aria-selected state.
• The element with role tree has either a visible label referenced by aria-labelledby or a value specified for aria-label.
• If the complete set of available nodes is not present in the DOM due to dynamic loading as the user moves focus in or scrolls the tree, each node has aria-level, aria-setsize, and aria-posinset specified.
• If the tree element is horizontally oriented, it has aria-orientation set to horizontal. The default value of aria-orientation for a tree is vertical.

Examples

• E-mail Inbox treegrid Example: A treegrid for navigating an e-mail inbox that demonstrates three keyboard navigation models -- rows first, cells first, and cells only.

Keyboard Interaction

The following keys provide treegrid navigation by moving focus among rows and cells of the grid. Implementations of treegrid make these key commands available when an element in the grid has received focus, e.g., after a user has moved focus to the grid with Tab. Moving focus into the grid may result in the first cell or the first row being focused. Whether focus goes to a cell or the row depends on author preferences and whether row focus is supported, since some treegrids may not provide focus to rows.

• Enter: If cell-only focus is enabled and focus is on the first cell with the aria-expanded property, opens or closes the child rows.,Otherwise, performs the default action for the cell.
• Tab: If the row containing focus contains focusable elements (e.g., inputs, buttons, links, etc.), moves focus to the next input in the row. If focus is on the last focusable element in the row, moves focus out of the treegrid widget to the next focusable element.
• Right Arrow:
  • If focus is on a collapsed row, expands the row.
  • If focus is on an expanded row or is on a row that does not have child rows, moves focus to the first cell in the row.
  • If focus is on the right-most cell in a row, focus does not move.
  • If focus is on any other cell, moves focus one cell to the right.
• Left Arrow:
  • If focus is on an expanded row, collapses the row.
  • If focus is on a collapsed row or on a row that does not have child rows, focus does not move.
  • If focus is on the first cell in a row and row focus is supported, moves focus to the row.
  • If focus is on the first cell in a row and row focus is not supported, focus does not move.
  • If focus is on any other cell, moves focus one cell to the left.
• Down Arrow:
  • If focus is on a row, moves focus one row down. If focus is on the last row, focus does not move.
  • If focus is on a cell, moves focus one cell down. If focus is on the bottom cell in the column, focus does not move.
• Up Arrow:
  • If focus is on a row, moves focus one row up. If focus is on the first row, focus does not move.
  • If focus is on a cell, moves focus one cell up. If focus is on the top cell in the column, focus does not move.
• Page Down:
  • If focus is on a row, moves focus down an author-determined number of rows, typically scrolling so the bottom row in the currently visible set of rows becomes one of the first visible rows. If focus is in the last row, focus does not move.
  • If focus is on a cell, moves focus down an author-determined number of cells, typically scrolling so the bottom row in the currently visible set of rows becomes one of the first visible rows. If focus is in the last row, focus does not move.
• Page Up:
  • If focus is on a row, moves focus up an author-determined number of rows, typically scrolling so the top row in the currently visible set of rows becomes one of the last visible rows. If focus is in the first row, focus does not move.
  • If focus is on a cell, moves focus up an author-determined number of cells, typically scrolling so the top row in the currently visible set of rows becomes one of the last visible rows. If focus is in the first row, focus does not move.
• Home:
  • If focus is on a row, moves focus to the first row. If focus is in the first row, focus does not move.
  • If focus is on a cell, moves focus to the first cell in the row. If focus is in the first cell of the row, focus does not move.
• End:
  • If focus is on a row, moves focus to the last row. If focus is in the last row, focus does not move.
  • If focus is on a cell, moves focus to the last cell in the row. If focus is in the last cell of the row, focus does not move.
• Control + Home:
  • If focus is on a row, moves focus to the first row. If focus is in the first row, focus does not move.
  • If focus is on a cell, moves focus to the first cell in the column. If focus is in the first row, focus does not move.
• Control + End:
  • If focus is on a row, moves focus to the last row. If focus is in the last row, focus does not move.
  • If focus is on a cell, moves focus to the last cell in the column. If focus is in the last row, focus does not move.

If a treegrid supports selection of cells, rows, or columns, the following keys are commonly used for these functions.

• Control + Space:
  • If focus is on a row, selects all cells.
  • If focus is on a cell, selects the column that contains the focus.
• Shift + Space:
  • If focus is on a row, selects the row.
  • If focus is on a cell, selects the row that contains the focus. If the treegrid includes a column with checkboxes for selecting rows, this key can serve as a shortcut for checking the box when focus is not on the checkbox.
• Control + A: Selects all cells.
• Shift + Right Arrow:
  • If focus is on a row, does not change selection.
  • if focus is on a cell, extends selection one cell to the right.
• Shift + Left Arrow:
  • If focus is on a row, does not change selection.
  • if focus is on a cell, extends selection one cell to the left.
• Shift + Down Arrow:
  • If focus is on a row, extends selection to all the cells in the next row.
  • If focus is on a cell, extends selection one cell down.
• Shift + Up Arrow:
  • If focus is on a row, extends selection to all the cells in the previous row.
  • If focus is on a cell, extends selection one cell up.

WAI-ARIA Roles, States, and Properties

• The treegrid container has role treegrid.
• Each row container has role row and is either a DOM descendant of or owned by the treegrid element or an element with role rowgroup.
• Each cell is either a DOM descendant of or owned by a row element and has one of the following roles:
  • columnheader if the cell contains a title or header information for the column.
  • rowheader if the cell contains title or header information for the row.
  • gridcell if the cell does not contain column or row header information.
• A row that can be expanded or collapsed to show or hide a set of child rows is a parent row. Each parent row has the aria-expanded state set on either the row element or on a cell contained in therow. The aria-expanded state is set to false when the child rows are not displayed and set to true when the child rows are displayed. Rows that do not control display of child rows do not have the aria-expanded attribute because, if they were to have it, they would be incorrectly described to assistive technologies as parent rows.
• If the treegrid supports selection of more than one row or cell, it is a multi-select treegrid and the element with role treegrid has aria-multiselectable set to true. Otherwise, it is a single-select treegrid, and aria-multiselectable is either set to false or the default value of false is implied.
• If the treegrid is a single-select treegrid, aria-selected is set to true on the selected row or cell, and it is not present on any other row or cell in the treegrid.
• if the treegrid is a multi-select treegrid:
  • All selected rows or cells have aria-selected set to true.
  • All rows and cells that are not selected have aria-selected set to false.
• If there is an element in the user interface that serves as a label for the treegrid, aria-labelledby is set on the grid element with a value that refers to the labelling element. Otherwise, a label is specified for the grid element using aria-label.
• If the treegrid has a caption or description, aria-describedby is set on the grid element with a value referring to the element containing the description.
• If the treegrid provides sort functions, aria-sort is set to an appropriate value on the header cell element for the sorted column or row as described in the section on grid and table properties.
• If the treegrid provides content editing functionality and contains cells that may have edit capabilities disabled in certain conditions, aria-readonly is set to true on cells where editing is disabled. If edit functions are disabled for all cells, instead of setting aria-readonly to true on every cell, aria-readonly may be set to true on the treegrid element. Treegrids that do not provide cell content editing functions do not include the aria-readonly attribute on any of their elements.
• If there are conditions where some rows or columns are hidden or not present in the DOM, e.g., data is dynamically loaded when scrolling or the grid provides functions for hiding rows or columns, the following properties are applied as described in the section on grid and table properties.
  • aria-colcount or aria-rowcount is set to the total number of columns or rows, respectively.
  • aria-colindex or aria-rowindex is set to the position of a cell within a row or column, respectively.
• If the treegrid includes cells that span multiple rows or multiple columns, and if the treegrid role is NOT applied to an HTML table element, then aria-rowspan or aria-colspan is applied as described in grid and table properties.

Example

Work to develop an example window splitter widget is tracked by issue 130.

Keyboard Interaction

• Left Arrow: Moves a vertical splitter to the left.
• Right Arrow: Moves a vertical splitter to the right.
• Up Arrow: Moves a horizontal splitter up.
• Down Arrow: Moves a horizontal splitter down.
• Enter: If the primary pane is not collapsed, collapses the pane. If the pane is collapsed, restores the splitter to its previous position.
• Home (Optional): Moves splitter to the position that gives the primary pane its smallest allowed size. This may completely collapse the primary pane.
• End (Optional): Moves splitter to the position that gives the primary pane its largest allowed size. This may completely collapse the secondary pane.
• F6 (Optional): Cycle through window panes.

WAI-ARIA Roles, States, and Properties

• The element that serves as the focusable splitter has role separator.
• The separator element has the aria-valuenow property set to a decimal value representing the current position of the separator.
• The separator element has the aria-valuemin property set to a decimal value that represents the position where the primary pane has its minimum size. This is typically 0.
• The separator element has the aria-valuemax property set to a decimal value that represents the position where the primary pane has its maximum size. This is typically 100.
• If the primary pane has a visible label, it is referenced by aria-labelledby on the separator element. Otherwise, the separator element has a label provided by aria-label.
• The separator element has aria-controls referring to the primary pane.