A type of live region with important, and usually time-sensitive, information. See related alertdialog and status.

Alerts are used to convey messages that may be immediately important to users. In the case of audio warnings, alerts provide an accessible alternative for hearing-impaired users. The alert role is applied to the element containing the alert message. An alert is a specialized form of the status role, which is processed as an atomic live region.

Alerts are assertive live regions, which means they cause immediate notification for assistive technology users. If the operating system allows, the user agent SHOULD fire a system alert event through the accessibility API when the WAI-ARIA alert is created.

Neither authors nor user agents are required to set or manage focus to an alert in order for it to be processed. Since alerts are not required to receive focus, authors SHOULD NOT require users to close an alert. If an author desires focus to move to a message when it is conveyed, the author SHOULD use alertdialog instead of alert.

Elements with the role alert have an implicit aria-live value of assertive, and an implicit aria-atomic value of true.

A type of dialog that contains an alert message, where initial focus goes to an element within the dialog. See related alert and dialog.

Alert dialogs are used to convey messages to alert the user. The alertdialog role goes on the [=nodes|node=] containing both the alert message and the rest of the dialog. Content authors SHOULD make alert dialogs modal by ensuring that, while the alertdialog is shown, keyboard and mouse interactions only operate within the dialog. See aria-modal.

Unlike alert, alertdialog can receive a response from the user. For example, to confirm that the user understands the alert being generated. When the alert dialog is displayed, authors SHOULD set focus to an active element within the alert dialog, such as a form control or confirmation button. The user agent SHOULD fire a system alert event through the accessibility API when the alert is created, provided one is specified by the intended accessibility API.

Authors SHOULD use aria-describedby on an alertdialog to reference the alert message element in the dialog. If they do not, an assistive technology can resort to its internal recovery mechanism to determine the contents of the alert message.

A structure containing one or more focusable elements requiring user input, such as keyboard or gesture events, that do not follow a standard interaction pattern supported by a widget role.

Some [=user agents=] and assistive technologies have a browse mode where standard input events, such as up and down arrow key events, are intercepted and used to control a reading cursor. This browse mode behavior prevents elements that do not have a widget role from receiving and using such keyboard and gesture events to provide interactive functionality.

When there is a need to create an element with an interaction model that is not supported by any of the WAI-ARIA widget roles, authors MAY give that element role application. And, when a user navigates into an element with role application, assistive technologies that intercept standard input events SHOULD switch to a mode that passes most or all standard input events through to the web application.

For example, a presentation slide editor uses arrow keys to change the positions of textbox and image elements on the slide. There are not any WAI-ARIA widget roles that correspond to such an interaction model so an author could give the slide container role application, an aria-roledescription of "Slide Editor", and use aria-describedby to provide instructions.

Because only the focusable elements contained in an application element are accessible to users of some assistive technologies, authors MUST use one of the following techniques to ensure all non-decorative static text or image content inside an application is accessible:

1. Associate the content with a focusable element using aria-labelledby or aria-describedby.
2. Place the content in a focusable element that has role document or article.
3. Manage focus of [=ARIA/owned=] elements as described in Managing Focus, updating the value of aria-activedescendant to reference the element containing the focused content.

A section of a page that consists of a composition that forms an independent part of a document, page, or site.

An article is not a navigational landmark, but may be nested to form a discussion where assistive technologies could pay attention to article nesting to assist the user in following the discussion. An article could be a forum post, a magazine or newspaper article, a web log entry, a user-submitted comment, or any other independent item of content. It is independent in that its contents could stand alone, for example in syndication. However, the element is still associated with its ancestors; for instance, contact information that applies to a parent body element still covers the article as well. When nesting articles, the child articles represent content that is related to the content of the parent article. For instance, a web log entry on a site that accepts user-submitted comments could represent the comments as articles nested within the article for the web log entry. Author, heading, date, or other information associated with an article does not apply to nested articles.

When the user navigates to an element assigned the role of article, assistive technologies that typically intercept standard keyboard events SHOULD switch to document browsing mode, as opposed to passing keyboard events through to the web application. Assistive technologies MAY provide a feature allowing the user to navigate the hierarchy of any nested article elements.

When an article is in the context of a feed, the author MAY specify values for aria-posinset and aria-setsize.

A landmark that contains mostly site-oriented content, rather than page-specific content.

Site-oriented content typically includes things such as the logo or identity of the site sponsor, and a site-specific search tool. A banner usually appears at the top of the page and typically spans the full width.

Assistive technologies SHOULD enable users to quickly navigate to elements with role banner. [=user agents=] SHOULD treat elements with role banner as navigational landmarks. [=user agents=] MAY enable users to quickly navigate to elements with role banner.

Within any document or application, the author SHOULD mark no more than one element with the banner role.

Because document and application elements can be nested in the DOM, they may have multiple banner elements as DOM descendants, assuming each of those is associated with different document nodes, either by a DOM nesting (e.g., document within document) or by use of the aria-owns attribute.

A section of content that is quoted from another source.

An input that allows for user-triggered actions when clicked or pressed. See related link.

Buttons are mostly used for discrete actions. Standardizing the appearance of buttons enhances the user's recognition of the widgets as buttons and allows for a more compact display in toolbars.

Buttons support the optional attribute aria-pressed. Buttons with a non-empty aria-pressed attribute are toggle buttons. When aria-pressed is true the button is in a "pressed" state, when aria-pressed is false it is not pressed. If the attribute is not present, the button is a simple command button.

Visible content that names, or describes a group, figure, table, grid, radiogroup, or treegrid.

When using caption authors SHOULD ensure:

• The caption is a descendant of a group, figure, grid, radiogroup, table, or treegrid.
• The caption is the first non-generic descendant of a group, radiogroup, grid, table, or treegrid.
• The caption is the first or last non-generic descendant of a figure.

If the caption represents an accessible name for its containing element, authors SHOULD specify aria-labelledby on the containing element to reference the element with role caption.

					<div role="radiogroup" aria-labelledby="cap">
				    <div role="caption" id="cap">
				      Choose your favorite fruit
				    </div>
				    <!-- ... -->
				

If a caption contains content that serves as both a name and description for its containing element, authors MAY instead specify aria-labelledby to reference an element within the caption that represents the "name" of the containing element, and specify aria-describedby to reference an element within the caption that represents the descriptive content.

					<div role="table" aria-labelledby="name" aria-describedby="desc">
				    <div role="caption">
				      <div id="name">Contest Entrants</div>
				      <div id="desc">
				        This table shows the total number of entrants (500) the
				        contest accepted over the past four weeks.
				      </div>
				    </div>
				    <!-- ... -->
				

If the caption represents a long-form description, or if the description contains semantic elements which are important in understanding the description, authors MAY instead specify aria-labelledby to reference an element within the caption that represents the "name" of the containing element, and specify aria-details to reference an element within the caption that represents the descriptive content.

					<div role="figure" aria-labelledby="name" aria-details="details">
					  <!-- figure content here, such as a complex data viz SVG -->
				    <div role="caption">
				      <div id="name">Sales information for 20XX</div>
				      <div id="details">
				        This barchart represents the total amount of sales over the course
				        of five years. <a href="...">Sales information for last year</a> can
				        be reviewed, or you can overlay <button aria-pressed="false">previous year</button>
				        information in this graphic.
				      </div>
				    </div>
				    <!-- ... -->
				

There may be instances where a caption contains only a description, without a suitable text string to serve as the accessible name for its containing element. In such instances, aria-label or aria-labelledby MAY be used to provide an accessible name, and the caption MAY be treated solely as descriptive content, referenced via aria-details.

					<div role="figure" aria-label="Sales information" aria-details="details">
					  <!-- figure content here, such as a complex data viz SVG -->
				    <div role="caption" id="details">
				      This barchart represents the total amount of sales over the course
				      of five years. <a href="...">Sales information for last year</a> can
				      be reviewed, or you can overlay <button aria-pressed="false">previous year</button>
				      information in this graphic.
				    </div>
				    <!-- ... -->
				

A cell in a tabular container. See related gridcell.

Authors MUST ensure [=elements=] with role cell are contained in, or owned by, an element with the role row.

A checkable input that has three possible values: true, false, or mixed.

The aria-checked attribute of a checkbox indicates whether the input is checked (true), unchecked (false), or represents a group of [=elements=] that have a mixture of checked and unchecked values (mixed). Many checkboxes do not use the mixed value, and thus are effectively boolean checkboxes.

Due to the strong native semantics of HTML's native checkbox, authors are advised against using aria-checked on an input type=checkbox. Rather, use the native checked attribute or the indeterminate IDL attribute to specify the checkbox's "checked" or "mixed" state, respectively.

A section whose content represents a fragment of computer code.

The primary purpose of the code role is to inform assistive technologies that the content is computer code and thus may require special presentation, in particular with respect to synthesized speech. More specifically, screen readers and other tools which provide text-to-speech presentation of content SHOULD prefer full punctuation verbosity to ensure common symbols (e.g. "-") are spoken.

A cell containing header information for a column.

columnheader can be used as a column header in a table or grid. It could also be used in a pie chart to show a similar relationship in the data.

The columnheader establishes a relationship between it and all cells in the corresponding column. It is the structural equivalent to an HTML th element with a column scope.

Authors MUST ensure [=elements=] with role columnheader are contained in, or [=ARIA/owned=] by, an element with the role row.

Applying the aria-selected state on a columnheader MUST not cause the user agent to automatically propagate the aria-selected state to all the cells in the corresponding column. An author MAY choose to propagate selection in this manner depending on the specific application.

While the columnheader role can be used in both interactive grids and non-interactive tables, the use of aria-readonly and aria-required is only applicable to interactive elements. Therefore, authors SHOULD NOT use aria-required or aria-readonly in a columnheader that descends from a table, and user agents SHOULD NOT expose either property to assistive technologies unless the columnheader descends from a grid.

Because cells are organized into rows, there is not a single container element for the column. The column is the set of gridcell elements in a particular position within their respective row containers.

While aria-disabled is currently supported on columnheader, in a future version the working group plans to prohibit its use on elements with role columnheader except when the element is in the context of a grid or treegrid.

An input that controls another element, such as a listbox or grid, that can dynamically pop up to help the user set the value of the input.

The Guidance for combobox has changed significantly in ARIA 1.2 due to problems with implementation of the previous patterns. Authors and developers of User Agents, Assistive Technologies, and Conformance Checkers are advised to review this section carefully to understand the changes. Explanation of the changes is available in the ARIA repository wiki.

A combobox functionally combines a named input field with the ability to assist value selection via a supplementary popup element. A combobox input MAY be either a single-line text field that supports editing and typing or an element that only displays the current value of the combobox. If the combobox supports text input and provides autocompletion behavior as described in aria-autocomplete, authors MUST set aria-autocomplete on the combobox element to the value that corresponds to the provided behavior.

Typically, the initial state of a combobox is collapsed. In the collapsed state, only the combobox element and a separate, optional popup control button are visible. A combobox is said to be expanded when both the combobox element showing its current value and its associated popup element are visible. Authors MUST set aria-expanded to true on an element with role combobox when it is expanded and false when it is collapsed.

Authors MUST ensure the popup element associated with a combobox has a role of listbox, tree, grid, or dialog. Authors MUST set aria-controls on a combobox element to a value that refers to the combobox popup element.

Elements with the role combobox have an implicit aria-haspopup value of listbox. If the combobox popup element has a role other than listbox, authors MUST specify a value for aria-haspopup that corresponds to the role of its popup.

If the user interface includes an additional icon that allows the visibility of the popup to be controlled via pointer and touch events, authors SHOULD ensure that element has role button, that it is focusable but not included in the page Tab sequence, and that it is not a descendant of the element with role combobox. In addition, to be keyboard accessible, authors SHOULD provide keyboard mechanisms for moving focus between the combobox element and elements contained in the popup. For example, one common convention is that Down Arrow moves focus from the input to the first focusable descendant of the popup element. If the popup element supports aria-activedescendant, in lieu of moving focus, such keyboard mechanisms can control the value of aria-activedescendant on the combobox element. When a descendant of the popup element is active, authors MAY set aria-activedescendant on the combobox to a value that refers to the active element within the popup while focus remains on the combobox element.

User agents MUST expose the value of elements with role combobox to assistive technologies. The value of a combobox is represented by one of the following:

• If the combobox element is a host language element that provides a value, such as an HTML input element, the value of the combobox is the value of that element.
• Otherwise, the value of the combobox is represented by its descendant elements and can be determined using the same method used to compute the name of a button from its descendant content.

          <label id="tag_label" for="tag_combo">Tag</label>
		      <input type="text" id="tag_combo"
            role="combobox" aria-autocomplete="list"
            aria-haspopup="listbox" aria-expanded="true"
            aria-controls="popup_listbox" aria-activedescendant="selected_option">
				  <ul role="listbox" id="popup_listbox" aria-labelledby="tag_label">
			      <li role="option">Zebra</li>
			      <li role="option" id="selected_option">Zoom</li>
				  </ul>
				

Please review the following carefully. As a result of these changes a combobox following the ARIA 1.1 combobox specification will no longer conform with the ARIA specification.

The features and behaviors of combobox implementations vary widely. Consequently, there are many important authoring considerations. See the WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices for additional details on implementing combobox design patterns.

A form of widget that performs an action but does not receive input data.

command is an abstract role used for the ontology. Authors MUST NOT use commmand role in content.

A landmark that is designed to be complementary to the main content, but would remain meaningful if it were to be separated from the main content. Complementary content is ideally placed at a similar level in the DOM hierarchy to the main content. For instance, as a sibling in the DOM hierarchy, or as a direct child of the main content.

There are various types of content that would appropriately have this role. For example, in the case of a portal, this may include but not be limited to show times, current weather, related articles, or stocks to watch. The complementary role indicates that contained content is relevant to the main content. If the complementary content is completely separable from the main content, it may be appropriate to use a more general role.

Assistive technologies SHOULD enable users to quickly navigate to elements with role complementary. [=user agents=] SHOULD treat elements with role complementary as navigational landmarks. [=user agents=] MAY enable users to quickly navigate to elements with role complementary.

A widget that may contain navigable descendants or [=ARIA/owned=] children.

Authors SHOULD ensure that a composite widget exists as a single navigation stop within the larger navigation system of the web page. Once the composite widget has focus, authors SHOULD provide a separate navigation mechanism for users to navigate to [=elements=] that are descendants or owned children of the composite element.

composite is an abstract role used for the ontology. Authors MUST NOT use composite role in content.

A landmark that contains information about the parent document.

Examples of information included in this region of the page are copyrights and links to privacy statements.

Assistive technologies SHOULD enable users to quickly navigate to elements with role contentinfo. [=user agents=] SHOULD treat elements with role contentinfo as navigational landmarks. [=user agents=] MAY enable users to quickly navigate to elements with role contentinfo.

Within any document or application, the author SHOULD mark no more than one element with the contentinfo role.

Because document and application elements can be nested in the DOM, they may have multiple contentinfo elements as DOM descendants, assuming each of those is associated with different document nodes, either by a DOM nesting (e.g., document within document) or by use of the aria-owns attribute.

A definition of a term or concept. See related term.

Authors SHOULD identify the element being defined by giving that element a role of term and referencing it with the aria-labelledby attribute or by making the element with role term a descendant of the element with role definition.

A deletion contains content that is marked as removed or content that is being suggested for removal. See related insertion.

Deletions are typically used to either mark differences between two versions of content or to designate content suggested for removal in scenarios where multiple people are revising content.

A dialog is a descendant window of the primary window of a web application. For HTML pages, the primary application window is the entire web document, i.e., the body element.

Dialogs are most often used to prompt the user to enter or respond to information. A dialog that is designed to interrupt workflow is usually modal. See related alertdialog.

Authors MUST provide an accessible name for a dialog, which can be done with the aria-label or aria-labelledby attribute.

Authors SHOULD ensure that all dialogs (both modal and non-modal) have at least one focusable descendant element. Authors SHOULD focus an element in the modal dialog when it is displayed, and authors SHOULD manage focus of modal dialogs.

In the description of this role, the term "web application" does not refer to the application role, which specifies specific assistive technology behaviors.

[Deprecated in ARIA 1.2] A list of references to members of a group, such as a static table of contents.

As exposed by accessibility APIs, the directory role is essentially equivalent to the list role. So, using directory does not provide any additional benefits to assistive technology users. Authors are advised to treat directory as deprecated and to use list, or a host language's equivalent semantics instead.

A directory is a static table of contents, whether linked or unlinked. This includes tables of contents built with lists, including nested lists. Dynamic tables of contents, however, might use a tree role instead.

An element containing content that assistive technology users may want to browse in a reading mode.

When user agent focus moves to an element assigned the role of document, assistive technologies having a reading mode for browsing static content MAY switch to that reading mode and intercept standard input events, such as Up or Down arrow keyboard events, to control the reading cursor.

Because assistive technologies that have a reading mode default to that mode for all elements except for those with either a widget or application role, the only circumstance where the document role is useful for changing assistive technology behavior is when the element with role document is a focusable child element of a widget or application. For example, given an application element which contains some static rich text, the author can apply role document to the element containing the text and give it a tabindex of 0. When a screen reader user presses the Tab key and places focus on the document element, the user will be able to read the text with the screen reader's reading cursor.

One or more emphasized characters. See related strong.

The purpose of the emphasis role is to stress or emphasize content. It is not for communicating changes in typographical presentation that do not impact the meaning of the content. Authors SHOULD use the emphasis role only if its absence would change the meaning of the content.

The emphasis role is not intended to convey importance; for that purpose, the strong role is more appropriate.

A scrollable list of articles where scrolling may cause articles to be added to or removed from either end of the list.

A feed enables users of assistive technologies that have a document browse mode, such as screen readers, to use the browse mode reading cursor to both read and scroll through a stream of rich content that may continue scrolling infinitely by loading more content as the user reads. In a feed, assistive technologies provide a web application with signals of the user's reading cursor movement by moving user agent focus, enabling the application to both add new content and visually position content as the user browses the page. The feed also lets authors inform assistive technologies when additions and removals are occurring so assistive technologies can more reliably update their reading view without disrupting reading or degrading performance.

For example, a feed could be used to present a stream of news stories where each article contains a story with text, links, images, and comments as well as widgets for sharing and commenting. As a screen reader user reads and interacts with each story and moves the screen reader reading cursor from story to story, each story scrolls into view and, as needed, new stories are loaded.

A feed is a container element whose children have role article. When articles are added or removed from either or both ends of a feed, authors SHOULD set aria-busy to true on the feed element before the changes are made and set it to false after the changes are complete. Authors SHOULD avoid inserting or removing articles in the middle of a feed. These requirements help assistive technologies gracefully respond to changes in the feed content that occur simultaneously with user commands to move the reading cursor within the feed.

Authors SHOULD make each article in a feed focusable and ensure that the application scrolls an article into view when user agent focus is set on the article or one of its descendant elements. For example, in HTML, each article element should have a tabindex value of either -1 or 0.

When an assistive technology reading cursor moves from one article to another, assistive technologies SHOULD set user agent focus on the article that contains the reading cursor. If the reading cursor lands on a focusable element inside the article, the assistive technology MAY set focus on that element in lieu of setting focus on the containing article.

Because the ability to scroll to another article with an assistive technology reading cursor depends on the presence of another article in the page, authors SHOULD attempt to load additional articles before user agent focus reaches an article at either end of the set of articles that has been loaded. Alternatively, authors MAY include an article at either or both ends of the loaded set of articles that includes an element, such as a button, that lets the user request more articles to be loaded.

In addition to providing a brief label, authors MAY apply aria-describedby to article elements in a feed to suggest to screen readers which elements to speak after the label when users navigate by article. Screen readers MAY provide users with a way to quickly scan feed content by speaking both the label and accessible description when navigating by article, enabling the user to ignore repetitive or less important elements, such as embedded interaction widgets, that the author has left out of the description.

Authors SHOULD provide keyboard commands for moving focus among articles in a feed so users who do not utilize an assistive technology that provides article navigation features can use the keyboard to navigate the feed.

If the number of articles available in a feed supply is static, authors MAY specify aria-setsize on article elements in that feed. However, if the total number is extremely large, indefinite, or changes often, authors MAY set aria-setsize to -1 to communicate the unknown size of the set.

See the WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices for additional details on implementing a feed design pattern.

A perceivable section of content that typically contains a graphical document, images, media player, code snippets, or example text. The parts of a figure MAY be user-navigable.

Authors SHOULD provide a reference to the figure from the main text, but the figure need not be displayed at the same location as the referencing element. Authors MAY provide a figure a caption which can include its name, descriptive text, or both. If a caption is provided, and it serves as a description to the contents of the figure, authors SHOULD associate it to the figure element using aria-details.

Authors MAY provide a figure an accessible name using aria-label or use aria-labelledby to reference other text in the page to serve as the element's label and accessible name.

Please refer to the caption role for more information on how to associate a figure with its caption.

Assistive technologies SHOULD enable users to quickly navigate to figures. User agents MAY enable users to quickly navigate to figures.

A landmark region that contains a collection of items and objects that, as a whole, combine to create a form. See related search.

A form may contain a mix of host language form controls, scripted controls, and hyperlinks. Authors are reminded to use native host language semantics to create form controls whenever possible. If the purpose of a form is to submit search criteria, authors SHOULD use the search role instead of the generic form role.

Authors MUST give each element with role form a brief label that describes the purpose of the form. Authors SHOULD reference a visible label with aria-labelledby if a visible label is present. Authors SHOULD include the label inside of a heading whenever possible. The heading MAY be an instance of the standard host language heading element or an instance of an element with role heading.

If an author uses a script to submit a form based on a user action that would otherwise not trigger an onsubmit event (for example, a form submission triggered by the user changing a form element's value), the author SHOULD provide the user with advance notification of the behavior.

Assistive technologies SHOULD enable users to quickly navigate to elements with role form. [=User agents=] SHOULD treat elements with role form as navigational landmarks. [=User agents=] MAY enable users to quickly navigate to elements with role form.

A nameless container element that has no semantic meaning on its own.

The generic role is intended for use as the implicit role of generic elements in host languages (such as HTML div or span), so is primarily for implementors of user agents. Authors SHOULD NOT use this role in content. Authors MAY use presentation or none to remove implicit accessibility semantics, or a semantic container role such as group to semantically group descendants in a named container.

Like an element with role presentation, an element with role generic can provide a limited number of accessible states and properties for its descendants, such as aria-live attributes. However, unlike elements with role presentation, generic elements are exposed in accessibility APIs so that assistive technologies can gather certain properties such as layout and bounds.

A composite widget containing a collection of one or more rows with one or more cells where some or all cells in the grid are focusable by using methods of two-dimensional navigation, such as directional arrow keys.

The grid role does not imply a specific visual, e.g., tabular, presentation. It describes relationships among [=elements=]. It may be used for purposes as simple as grouping a collection of checkboxes or navigation links or as complex as creating a full-featured spreadsheet application.

The cell elements of a grid have role gridcell. Authors MAY designate a cell as a row or column header by using either the rowheader or columnheader role in lieu of the gridcell role. Authors MUST ensure elements with role gridcell, columnheader, or rowheader are [=ARIA/owned=] by elements with role row, which are in turn owned by an element with role rowgroup, or grid.

To be keyboard accessible, authors SHOULD manage focus of descendants of a grid as described in Managing Focus. When a user is navigating the grid content with a keyboard, authors SHOULD set focus as follows:

• If a gridcell contains a single interactive widget that will not consume arrow key presses when it receives focus, such as a checkbox, button, or link, authors MAY set focus on the interactive element contained in that cell. This allows the contained widget to be directly operable.
• Otherwise, authors SHOULD ensure the element that receives focus is a gridcell, rowheader, or columnheader element.

Authors SHOULD provide a mechanism for changing to an interaction or edit mode that allows users to navigate and interact with content contained inside a focusable cell if that focusable cell contains any of the following:

• a widget that requires arrow keys to operate, e.g., a combobox or radiogroup
• multiple interactive elements
• editable content

For example, if a cell in a spreadsheet contains a combobox or editable text, the Enter key might be used to activate a cell interaction or editing mode when that cell has focus so the directional arrow keys can be used to operate the contained combobox or textbox. Depending on the implementation, pressing Enter again, Tab, Escape, or another key may switch the application back to the grid navigation mode.

Authors MAY use a gridcell to display the result of a formula, which could be editable by the user. In a spreadsheet application, for example, a gridcell may show a value calculated from a formula until the user activates the gridcell for editing when a textbox appears in the gridcell containing the formula in an editable state.

If aria-readonly is set on an element with role grid, [=user agents=] MUST propagate the value to all gridcell elements [=ARIA/owned=] by the grid and expose the value in the accessibility API. An author MAY override the propagated value of aria-readonly for an individual gridcell element.

In a grid that provides cell content editing functions, if the content of a focusable gridcell element is not editable, authors MAY set aria-readonly to true on the gridcell element. However, the value of aria-readonly, whether specified for a grid or individual cells, only indicates whether the content contained in cells is editable. It does not represent availability of functions for navigating or manipulating the grid itself.

An unspecified value for aria-readonly does not imply that a grid or a gridcell contains editable content. For example, if a grid presents a collection of elements that are not editable, such as a collection of link elements representing dates in a datepicker, it is not necessary for the author to specify a value for aria-readonly.

Authors MAY indicate that a focusable gridcell is selectable as the object of an action with the aria-selected attribute. If the grid allows multiple gridcells to be selected, the author SHOULD set aria-multiselectable to true on the element with role grid.

Since WAI-ARIA can augment an element of the host language, a grid can reuse the elements and attributes of a native table, such as an HTML table element. For example, if an author applies the grid role to an HTML table element, the author does not need to apply the row and gridcell roles to the descendant HTML tr and td elements because the user agent will automatically make the appropriate translations. When the author is reusing a native host language table element and needs a gridcell element to span multiple rows or columns, the author SHOULD apply the appropriate host language attributes instead of WAI-ARIA aria-rowspan or aria-colspan properties.

See the WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices for additional details on implementing grid design patterns.

A cell in a grid or treegrid.

A gridcell may be focusable, editable, and selectable. A gridcell may have relationships such as aria-controls to address the application of functional relationships.

If an author intends a gridcell to have a row header, column header, or both, and if the relevant headers cannot be determined from the DOM structure, authors SHOULD explicitly indicate which header cells are relevant to the gridcell by applying aria-describedby on the gridcell and referencing [=elements=] with role rowheader or columnheader.

In a treegrid, authors MAY define a gridcell as expandable by using the aria-expanded attribute. If the aria-expanded attribute is provided, it applies only to the individual cell. It is not a proxy for the container row, which also can be expanded. The main use case for providing this attribute on a gridcell is pivot table behavior.

Authors MUST ensure [=elements=] with role gridcell are contained in, or [=ARIA/owned=] by, an element with the role row.

A set of user interface objects that is not intended to be included in a page summary or table of contents by assistive technologies.

Contrast with region, which is a grouping of user interface objects that will be included in a page summary or table of contents.

Authors SHOULD use a group to form a logical collection of items in a widget, such as children in a tree widget forming a collection of siblings in a hierarchy. However, when a group is used in the context of a listbox, authors MUST limit its children to option elements. Therefore, proper handling of group by authors and assistive technologies is determined by the context in which it is provided.

Authors MAY nest group elements. If a section is significant enough to warrant inclusion in the web page's table of contents, the author SHOULD assign it a role of region or a standard landmark role.

A heading for a section of the page.

To ensure elements with a role of heading are organized into a logical outline, authors MUST use the aria-level attribute to indicate the proper nesting level.

A container for a collection of [=elements=] that form an image. See synonym img.

A container for a collection of [=elements=] that form an image. See synonym image.

An img can contain captions and descriptive text, as well as multiple image files that when viewed together give the impression of a single image. An img represents a single graphic within a document, whether or not it is formed by a collection of drawing objects. In order for an element with a role of img to be perceivable, authors MUST provide the element with an accessible name. This can be done using the aria-label or aria-labelledby attribute.

A generic type of widget that allows user input.

input is an abstract role used for the ontology. Authors MUST NOT use input role in content.

An insertion contains content that is marked as added or content that is being suggested for addition. See related deletion.

Insertions are typically used to either mark differences between two versions of content or to designate content suggested for addition in scenarios where multiple people are revising content.

A perceivable section containing content that is relevant to a specific, author-specified purpose and sufficiently important that users will likely want to be able to navigate to the section easily and to have it listed in a summary of the page. Such a page summary could be generated dynamically by a user agent or assistive technology.

landmark is an abstract role used for the ontology. Authors MUST NOT use landmark role in content.

Authors designate the purpose of the content by assigning a role that is a subclass of the landmark role and, when needed, by providing a brief, descriptive label.

Elements with a role that is a subclass of the landmark role are known as landmark regions or navigational landmark regions.

Assistive technologies SHOULD enable users to quickly navigate to landmark regions. [=user agents=] MAY enable users to quickly navigate to landmark regions.

An interactive reference to an internal or external resource that, when activated, causes the user agent to navigate to that resource. See related button.

If this is a native link in the host language (such as an HTML anchor with an href value), activating the link causes the user agent to navigate to that resource. If this is a simulated link, the web application author is responsible for managing navigation.

If pressing the link triggers an action but does not change browser focus or page location, authors are advised to consider using the button role instead of the link role.

A section containing listitem elements. See related listbox.

Lists contain children whose role is listitem.

A widget that allows the user to select one or more items from a list of choices. See related combobox and list.

Items within the list are static and, unlike standard HTML select [=elements=], may contain images. List boxes contain children whose role is option or elements whose role is group which in turn contain children whose role is option.

To be keyboard accessible, authors SHOULD manage focus of option descendants for all instances of this role, as described in Managing Focus.

Elements with the role listbox have an implicit aria-orientation value of vertical.

A single item in a list or directory.

Authors MUST ensure [=elements=] whose role is listitem are contained in, or [=ARIA/owned=] by, an element whose role is list.

A type of live region where new information is added in meaningful order and old information may disappear. See related marquee.

Examples include chat logs, messaging history, game log, or an error log. In contrast to other live regions, in this role there is a relationship between the arrival of new items in the log and the reading order. The log contains a meaningful sequence and new information is added only to the end of the log, not at arbitrary points.

Elements with the role log have an implicit aria-live value of polite.

A landmark containing the main content of a document.

This marks the content that is directly related to or expands upon the central topic of the document. The main role is a non-obtrusive alternative for "skip to main content" links, where the navigation option to go to the main content (or other landmarks) is provided by assistive technologies, or by a user agent or browser extension, through a keyboard shortcut or UI feature such as a side panel or dialog.

Assistive technologies SHOULD enable users to quickly navigate to elements with role main. [=user agents=] SHOULD treat elements with role main as navigational landmarks. [=user agents=] MAY enable users to quickly navigate to elements with role main.

Within any document or application, the author SHOULD mark no more than one element with the main role.

Because document and application elements can be nested in the DOM, they may have multiple main elements as DOM descendants, assuming each of those is associated with different document nodes, either by a DOM nesting (e.g., document within document) or by use of the aria-owns attribute.

A type of live region where non-essential information changes frequently. See related log.

Common usages of marquee include stock tickers and ad banners. The primary difference between a marquee and a log is that logs usually have a meaningful order or sequence of important content changes.

Elements with the role marquee have an implicit aria-live value of off.

Content that represents a mathematical expression.

Content with the role math is intended to be marked up in an accessible format such as MathML [[MathML3]], or with another type of textual representation such as TeX or LaTeX, which can be converted to an accessible format by native browser implementations or a polyfill library.

While it is not ideal to use an image of a mathematical expression, there exists a significant amount of legacy content where images are used to represent mathematical expressions. Authors SHOULD ensure that images of math are labeled by text that describes the mathematical expression as it might be spoken.

MathML Example with Embedded TeX Annotation

					<!-- Note: Use a JavaScript polyfill library to ensure
					     this renders in user agents that do not support MathML. -->
					<!-- The math element has an implicit role="math". -->
					<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML">
					  <mrow>
					    <mi>x</mi>
					    <mo>=</mo>
					    <mfrac>
					      <mrow>
					        <mo form="prefix">−</mo>
					        <mi>b</mi>
					        <mo>±</mo>
					        <msqrt>
					          <msup>
					            <mi>b</mi>
					            <mn>2</mn>
					          </msup>
					          <mo>−</mo>
					          <mn>4</mn>
					          <mo>&#x2062;<!-- &InvisibleTimes; --></mo>
					          <mi>a</mi>
					          <mo>&#x2062;<!-- &InvisibleTimes; --></mo>
					          <mi>c</mi>
					        </msqrt>
					      </mrow>
					      <mrow>
					        <mn>2</mn>
					        <mo>&#x2062;<!-- &InvisibleTimes; --></mo>
					        <mi>a</mi>
					      </mrow>
					    </mfrac>
					  </mrow>
					  <annotation encoding="TeX">
					    x=\frac{-b\pm\sqrt{b^2-4ac}}{2a}
					  </annotation>
					</math>
				

Plain HTML or Polyfill DOM Result of the MathML Quadratic Formula

If a rendering engine does not support a native math format such as MathML, authors MAY use JavaScript to downgrade the content to a format the browser can display, such as this HTML image using a data URI and plain text alternative.

					<img role="math" src="..." alt="x=⟮−b±√⟮b²−4ac⟯⟯÷2a">
				

A type of widget that offers a list of choices to the user.

A menu is often a list of common actions or functions that the user can invoke. The menu role is appropriate when a list of menu items is presented in a manner similar to a menu on a desktop application.

To be keyboard accessible, authors SHOULD manage focus of descendants for all instances of this role, as described in Managing Focus.

Elements with the role menu have an implicit aria-orientation value of vertical.

A presentation of menu that usually remains visible and is usually presented horizontally.

The menubar role is used to create a menu bar similar to those found in Windows, Mac, and Gnome desktop applications. A menu bar is used to create a consistent set of frequently used commands. Authors SHOULD ensure that menubar interaction is similar to the typical menu bar interaction in a desktop graphical user interface.

To be keyboard accessible, authors SHOULD manage focus of descendants for all instances of this role, as described in Managing Focus.

Elements with the role menubar have an implicit aria-orientation value of horizontal.

An option in a set of choices contained by a menu or menubar.

Authors MUST ensure [=elements=] with role menuitem are contained in, or [=ARIA/owned=] by, an element with role menu or an element with role group that is contained in, or owned by, an element with role menu.

Authors MAY disable a menu item with the aria-disabled attribute. If the menu item has its aria-haspopup attribute set to true, it indicates that the menu item may be used to launch a sub-level menu, and authors SHOULD display a new sub-level menu when the menu item is activated.

In order to identify that they are related widgets, authors MUST ensure that menu items are [=ARIA/owned=] by an element with role menu or menubar. Authors MAY separate menu items into sets by use of a separator or an element with an equivalent role from the native markup language.

A menuitem with a checkable state whose possible values are true, false, or mixed.

Authors MUST ensure [=elements=] with role menuitemcheckbox are contained in, or [=ARIA/owned=] by, an element with role menu or an element with role group that is contained in, or owned by, an element with role menu.

The aria-checked attribute of a menuitemcheckbox indicates whether the menu item is checked (true), unchecked (false), or represents a sub-level menu of other menu items that have a mixture of checked and unchecked values (mixed).

In order to identify that they are related widgets, authors MUST ensure that menu item checkboxes are [=ARIA/owned=] by an element with role menu or menubar. Authors MAY separate menu items into sets by use of a separator or an element with an equivalent role from the native markup language.

A checkable menuitem in a set of elements with the same role, only one of which can be checked at a time.

Authors MUST ensure [=elements=] with role menuitemradio are contained in, or [=ARIA/owned=] by, an element with role menu or an element with role group that is contained in, or owned by, an element with role menu.

Authors SHOULD enforce that only one menuitemradio in a group can be checked at the same time. When one item in the group is checked, the previously checked item becomes unchecked (its aria-checked attribute becomes false).

In order to identify that they are related widgets, authors MUST ensure that menu item radios are [=ARIA/owned=] by an element with role menu or menubar, or by a role group which itself is [=ARIA/owned=] by an element with role menu or menubar.

If a menu or menubar contains more than one group of menuitemradio elements, or if the menu contains one group and other, unrelated menu items, authors SHOULD contain each set of related menuitemradio elements in an element using the group role. Authors MAY also delimit the group from other menu items with an element using the separator role, or an element with an equivalent role from the native markup language.

An element that represents a scalar measurement within a known range, or a fractional value. See related progressbar.

Authors MAY set aria-valuemin and aria-valuemax to indicate the minimum and maximum values for the meter. Otherwise, their implicit values follow the same rules as <input[type="range"]> in [[HTML]]:

• If aria-valuemin is missing or not a number, it defaults to 0 (zero).
• If aria-valuemax is missing or not a number, it defaults to 100.

The value of aria-valuenow MUST NOT fall below or exceed the computed values of aria-valuemin and aria-valuemax, respectively.

Authors SHOULD NOT use the meter role to indicate progress; the progressbar role exists to address that need.

Presently, there are no WAI-ARIA properties corresponding to the low, optimum, and high attributes supported on the <meter> element in [[HTML]]. The addition of these properties will be considered for ARIA version 1.3.

A landmark containing a collection of navigational [=elements=] (usually links) for navigating the document or related documents.

Assistive technologies SHOULD enable users to quickly navigate to elements with role navigation. [=user agents=] SHOULD treat elements with role navigation as navigational landmarks. [=user agents=] MAY enable users to quickly navigate to elements with role navigation.

An element whose implicit native role semantics will not be mapped to the accessibility API. See synonym presentation.

A section whose content is parenthetic or ancillary to the main content of the resource.

A selectable item in a listbox.

Authors MUST ensure elements with role option are contained in, or owned by, an element with the role listbox or group within a listbox. Options not associated with a listbox might not be correctly mapped to an accessibility API.

Elements with the role option have an implicit aria-selected value of false.

A paragraph of content.

An element whose implicit native role semantics will not be mapped to the accessibility API. See synonym none.

The intended use is when an element is used to change the look of the page but does not have all the functional, interactive, or structural relevance implied by the element type, or may be used to provide for an accessible fallback in older browsers that do not support WAI-ARIA.

Example use cases:

• An element whose content is completely presentational (like a spacer image, decorative graphic, or clearing element);
• An image that is in a container with the img role and where the full text alternative is available and is marked up with aria-labelledby and (if needed) aria-describedby;
• An element used as an additional markup "hook" for CSS; or
• A layout table and/or any of its associated rows, cells, etc.

For any element with a role of presentation and which is not focusable, the user agent MUST NOT expose the implicit native semantics of the element (the role and its states and properties) to accessibility APIs. However, the user agent MUST expose content and descendant elements that do not have an explicit or inherited role of presentation. Thus, the presentation role causes a given element to be treated as having no role or to be removed from the accessibility tree, but does not cause the content contained within the element to be removed from the accessibility tree.

For example, the following two markup snippets will be exposed similarly to an accessibility API.

<!-- 1. role="presentation" negates the implicit 'heading' role semantics but does not affect the contents, including the nested hyperlink. -->
<h1 role="presentation"> Sample Content <a href="...">let's go!</a> </h1>

<!-- 2. A span has an implicit 'generic' role and no other attributes important to accessibility, so only its content is exposed, including the hyperlink. -->
<span> Sample Content <a href="...">let's go!</a> </span>

In HTML, the <img> element is treated as a single entity regardless of the type of image file. Consequently, using role="presentation" or role="none" on an HTML img is equivalent to using aria-hidden="true". In order to make the image contents accessible, authors can embed the object using an <object> or <iframe> element, or use inline SVG code, and follow the accessibility guidelines for the image content.

Authors SHOULD NOT provide meaningful alternative text (for example, use alt="" in HTML) when the presentation role is applied to an image.

In the following code sample, the containing img and is appropriately labeled by the caption paragraph. In this example the img element can be marked as presentation because the role and the text alternatives are provided by the containing element.

<div role="img" aria-labelledby="caption">
  <img src="example.png" role="presentation" alt="">
  <p id="caption">A visible text caption labeling the image.</p>
</div>

In the following code sample, because the anchor (HTML a element) is acting as the treeitem, the list item (HTML li element) is assigned an explicit WAI-ARIA role of presentation to override the user agent's implicit native semantics for list items.

<ul role="tree">
  <li role="presentation">
	<a role="treeitem" aria-expanded="true">An expanded tree node</a>
  </li>
  …
</ul>

Presentational Role Inheritance

The presentation role is used on an element that has implicit native semantics, meaning that there is a default accessibility API role for the element. Some elements are only complete when additional descendant elements are provided. For example, in HTML, table elements (matching the table role) require tr descendants (which have an implicit row role), which in turn require th or td children (the columnheader or rowheader and cell roles, respectively). Similarly, lists require list item children. The descendant elements that complete the semantics of an element are described in WAI-ARIA as required owned elements.

When an explicit or inherited role of presentation is applied to an element with the implicit semantic of a WAI-ARIA role that has required owned elements, in addition to the element with the explicit role of presentation, the user agent MUST apply an inherited role of presentation to any owned elements that do not have an explicit role defined. Also, when an explicit or inherited role of presentation is applied to a host language element which has required children as defined by the host language specification, in addition to the element with the explicit role of presentation, the user agent MUST apply an inherited role of presentation to any required children that do not have an explicit role defined.

For any element with an explicit or inherited role of presentation and which is not focusable, user agents MUST ignore role-specific WAI-ARIA states and properties for that element. For example, in HTML, a ul or ol element with a role of presentation will have the implicit native semantics of its li elements removed because the list role to which the ul or ol corresponds has a required owned element of listitem. Likewise, the implicit native semantics of an HTML table element's thead/tbody/tfoot/tr/th/td descendants will also be removed, because the HTML specification indicates that these are required structural descendants of the table element.

Only the implicit native semantics of elements that correspond to WAI-ARIA required owned elements are removed. All other content remains intact, including nested tables or lists, unless those elements also have an explicit role of presentation specified.

For example, according to an accessibility API, the following markup elements would appear to have identical role semantics (no roles) and identical content.

<!-- 1. [role="presentation"] negates the implicit 'list' and 'listitem' role semantics but does not affect the contents. -->
<ul role="presentation">
  <li> Sample Content </li>
  <li> More Sample Content </li>
</ul>

<!-- 2. There is no implicit role for "foo", so only the contents are exposed. -->
<foo>
  <foo> Sample Content </foo>
  <foo> More Sample Content </foo>
</foo>

There are other WAI-ARIA roles with required children for which this situation is applicable (e.g., radiogroups and listboxes), but tables and lists are the most common real-world cases in which the presentation inheritance is likely to apply.

For any element with an explicit or inherited role of presentation, user agents MUST apply an inherited role of presentation to all host-language-specific labeling elements for the presentational element. For example, a table element with a role of presentation will have the implicit native semantics of its caption element removed, because the caption is merely a label for the presentational table.

Information about resolving conflicts in the presentation role has been moved to Handling Author Errors

An element that displays the progress status for tasks that take a long time.

A progressbar indicates that the user's request has been received and the application is making progress toward completing the requested action.

Authors MAY set aria-valuemin and aria-valuemax to indicate the minimum and maximum progress indicator values. Otherwise, their implicit values follow the same rules as <input[type="range"]> in [[HTML]]:

• If aria-valuemin is missing or not a number, it defaults to 0 (zero).
• If aria-valuemax is missing or not a number, it defaults to 100.

The author SHOULD supply a value for aria-valuenow unless the value is indeterminate, in which case the author SHOULD omit the aria-valuenow attribute. Authors SHOULD update this value when the visual progress indicator is updated. If the progressbar is describing the loading progress of a particular region of a page, the author SHOULD use aria-describedby to point to the status, and set the aria-busy attribute to true on the region until it is finished loading. It is not possible for the user to alter the value of a progressbar because it is always read-only.

Assistive technologies generally will render the value of aria-valuenow as a percent of a range between the value of aria-valuemin and aria-valuemax, unless aria-valuetext is specified.

A checkable input in a group of elements with the same role, only one of which can be checked at a time.

Authors SHOULD ensure that [=elements=] with role radio are explicitly grouped in order to indicate which ones affect the same value. This is achieved by enclosing the radio elements in an element with role radiogroup. If it is not possible to make the radio buttons DOM children of the radiogroup, authors SHOULD use the aria-owns attribute on the radiogroup element to indicate the relationship to its children.

A group of radio buttons.

A radiogroup is a type of select list that can only have a single entry checked at any one time. Authors SHOULD enforce that only one radio button in a group can be checked at the same time. When one item in the group is checked, the previously checked item becomes unchecked (its aria-checked attribute becomes false).

An element representing a range of values.

range is an abstract role used for the ontology. Authors MUST NOT use range role in content.

A landmark containing content that is relevant to a specific, author-specified purpose and sufficiently important that users will likely want to be able to navigate to the section easily and to have it listed in a summary of the page. Such a page summary could be generated dynamically by a user agent or assistive technology.

Authors SHOULD limit use of the region role to sections containing content with a purpose that is not accurately described by one of the other landmark roles, such as main, complementary, or navigation.

Authors MUST give each element with role region a brief label that describes the purpose of the content in the region. Authors SHOULD reference a visible label with aria-labelledby if a visible label is present. Authors SHOULD include the label inside of a heading whenever possible. The heading MAY be an instance of the standard host language heading element or an instance of an element with role heading.

Assistive technologies SHOULD enable users to quickly navigate to elements with role region. [=User agents=] SHOULD treat elements with role region as navigational landmarks. [=User agents=] MAY enable users to quickly navigate to elements with role region.

The base role from which all other roles inherit.

Properties of this role describe the structural and functional purpose of objects that are assigned this role. A role is a concept that can be used to understand and operate instances.

roletype is an abstract role used for the ontology. Authors MUST NOT use roletype role in content.

A row of cells in a tabular container.

Rows contain cell or gridcell [=elements=], and thus serve to organize a table, grid, or treegrid.

While the row role can be used in a table, grid, or treegrid, the semantics of aria-expanded, aria-posinset, aria-setsize, and aria-level are only applicable to the hierarchical structure of an interactive tree grid. Therefore, authors MUST NOT apply aria-expanded, aria-posinset, aria-setsize, and aria-level to a row that descends from a table or grid, and user agents SHOULD NOT expose any of these four properties to assistive technologies unless the row descends from a treegrid.

Authors MUST ensure [=elements=] with role row are contained in, or [=ARIA/owned=] by, an element with the role table, grid, rowgroup, or treegrid.

While aria-disabled is currently supported on row, in a future version the working group plans to prohibit its on elements with role row except when the element is in the context of a grid or treegrid.

A structure containing one or more row elements in a tabular container.

The rowgroup role establishes a relationship between [=ARIA/owned=] row elements. It is a structural equivalent to the thead, tfoot, and tbody elements in an HTML table element.

Authors MUST ensure [=elements=] with role rowgroup are contained in, or [=ARIA/owned=] by, an element with the role grid, table, or treegrid.

The rowgroup role exists, in part, to support role symmetry in HTML, and allows for the propagation of presentation inheritance on HTML table elements with an explicit presentation role applied.

This role does not differentiate between types of row groups (e.g., thead vs. tbody), but an issue has been raised for WAI-ARIA 2.0.

A cell containing header information for a row.

The rowheader role can be used to identify a cell as a header for a row in a table, grid, or treegrid. The rowheader establishes a relationship between it and all cells in the corresponding row. It is a structural equivalent to setting scope="row" on an HTML th element.

Authors MUST ensure [=elements=] with role rowheader are contained in, or [=ARIA/owned=] by, an element with the role row.

Applying the aria-selected state on a rowheader MUST NOT cause the user agent to automatically propagate the aria-selected state to all the cells in the corresponding row. An author MAY choose to propagate selection in this manner depending on the specific application.

While the rowheader role can be used in both interactive grids and non-interactive tables, the use of aria-expanded, aria-readonly, and aria-required is only applicable to interactive elements. Therefore, authors SHOULD NOT use aria-expanded, aria-readonly, or aria-required in a rowheader that descends from a table, and user agents SHOULD NOT expose these properties to assistive technologies unless the rowheader descends from a grid or treegrid.

While aria-disabled is currently supported on rowheader, in a future version the working group plans to prohibit its use on elements with role rowheader except when the element is in the context of a grid or treegrid.

A graphical object that controls the scrolling of content within a viewing area, regardless of whether the content is fully displayed within the viewing area.

A scrollbar represents the current value and range of possible values via the size of the scrollbar and position of the thumb with respect to the visible range of the orientation (horizontal or vertical) it controls. Its orientation represents the orientation of the scrollbar and the scrolling effect on the viewing area controlled by the scrollbar. It is typically possible to add to or subtract from the current value by using directional keys such as arrow keys.

Authors MUST set the aria-controls attribute on the scrollbar element to reference the scrollable area it controls.

Authors MAY set aria-valuemin and aria-valuemax to indicate the minimum and maximum thumb position. Otherwise, their implicit values follow the same rules as <input[type="range"]> in [[HTML]]:

• If aria-valuemin is missing or not a number, it defaults to 0 (zero).
• If aria-valuemax is missing or not a number, it defaults to 100.

Authors MUST set the aria-valuenow attribute to indicate the current thumb position. If aria-valuenow is missing or has an unexpected value, browsers MAY implement the repair techniques specified in the section describing handling author errors in states and properties, which are equivalent to the repair techniques for <input[type="range"]> in [[HTML]].

Elements with the role scrollbar have an implicit aria-orientation value of vertical.

Assistive technologies generally will render the value of aria-valuenow as a percent of a range between the value of aria-valuemin and aria-valuemax, unless aria-valuetext is specified. It is best to set the values for aria-valuemin, aria-valuemax, and aria-valuenow in a manner that is appropriate for this calculation.

A landmark region that contains a collection of items and objects that, as a whole, combine to create a search facility. See related form and searchbox.

A search region may be a mix of host language form controls, scripted controls, and hyperlinks.

Assistive technologies SHOULD enable users to quickly navigate to elements with role search. [=user agents=] SHOULD treat elements with role search as navigational landmarks. [=user agents=] MAY enable users to quickly navigate to elements with role search.

A type of textbox intended for specifying search criteria. See related textbox and search.

A renderable structural containment unit in a document or application.

section is an abstract role used for the ontology. Authors MUST NOT use section role in content.

A structure that labels or summarizes the topic of its related section.

sectionhead is an abstract role used for the ontology. Authors MUST NOT use sectionhead role in content.

A form widget that allows the user to make selections from a set of choices.

select is an abstract role used for the ontology. Authors MUST NOT use select role in content.

A divider that separates and distinguishes sections of content or groups of menuitems.

There are two types of separators: a static structure that provides only a visible boundary and a focusable, interactive widget that is also moveable. If a separator is not focusable, it is revealed to assistive technologies as a static structural element. For example, a static separator can be used to help visually divide two groups of menu items in a menu or to provide a horizontal rule between two sections of a page.

Authors MAY make a separator focusable to create a widget that both provides a visible boundary between two sections of content and enables the user to change the relative size of the sections by changing the position of the separator. A variable separator widget can be moved continuously within a range, whereas a fixed separator widget supports only two discrete positions. Typically, a fixed separator widget is used to toggle one of the sections between expanded and collapsed states.

If the separator is focusable, authors MUST set the value of aria-valuenow to a number reflecting the current position of the separator and update that value when it changes. Authors SHOULD also provide the value of aria-valuemin if it is not 0 and the value of aria-valuemax if it is not 100. If missing or not a number, the implicit values of these attributes are as follows:

• The implicit value of aria-valuemin is 0.
• The implicit value of aria-valuemax is 100.

In applications where there is more than one focusable separator, authors SHOULD provide an accessible name for each one.

Elements with the role separator have an implicit aria-orientation value of horizontal.

An input where the user selects a value from within a given range.

A slider represents the current value and range of possible values via the size of the slider and position of the thumb. It is typically possible to add to or subtract from the current value by using directional keys such as arrow keys.

Authors MAY set the aria-valuemin and aria-valuemax attributes. Otherwise, their implicit values follow the same rules as <input[type="range"]> in [[HTML]]:

• If aria-valuemin is missing or not a number, it defaults to 0 (zero).
• If aria-valuemax is missing or not a number, it defaults to 100.

Authors MUST set the aria-valuenow attribute. If aria-valuenow is missing or has an unexpected value, browsers MAY implement the repair techniques specified in the section describing handling author errors in states and properties, which are equivalent to the repair techniques for <input[type="range"]> in [[HTML]].

Elements with the role slider have an implicit aria-orientation value of horizontal.

A form of range that expects the user to select from among discrete choices.

A spinbutton typically allows users to change its displayed value by activating increment and decrement buttons that step through a set of allowed values. Some implementations display the value in an text field that allows editing and typing but typically limits input in ways that help prevent invalid values.

Although a spinbutton is similar in appearance to many presentations of select, it is advisable to use spinbutton when working with known ranges (especially in the case of large ranges) as opposed to distinct options. For example, a spinbutton representing a range from 1 to 1,000,000 would provide much better performance than a select widget representing the same values.

Authors MAY create a spinbutton with children or owned elements, but MUST limit those elements to a textbox and/or two buttons. Alternatively, authors MAY apply the spinbutton role to a text input and create sibling buttons to support the increment and decrement functions.

To be keyboard accessible, authors SHOULD manage focus of descendants for all instances of this role, as described in Managing Focus. When a spinbutton receives focus, authors SHOULD ensure focus is placed on the textbox element if one is present, and on the spinbutton itself otherwise. Authors SHOULD also ensure the up and down arrows on a keyboard perform the increment and decrement functions and that the increment and decrement button elements are NOT included in the primary navigation ring, e.g., the Tab ring in HTML.

Authors SHOULD set the aria-valuenow attribute when the spinbutton has a value. Authors SHOULD set the aria-valuemin attribute when there is a minimum value, and the aria-valuemax attribute when there is a maximum value.

A type of live region whose content is advisory information for the user but is not important enough to justify an alert, often but not necessarily presented as a status bar.

Authors SHOULD ensure an element with role status does not receive focus as a result of change in status.

Status is a form of live region. If another part of the page controls what appears in the status, authors SHOULD make the relationship explicit with the aria-controls attribute.

Assistive technologies MAY reserve some cells of a Braille display to render the status.

Elements with the role status have an implicit aria-live value of polite and an implicit aria-atomic value of true.

Content that is important, serious, or urgent. See related emphasis.

The purpose of the strong role is to communicate strong importance, seriousness, or urgency. It is not for communicating changes in typographical presentation that are not important to the meaning of the content. Authors SHOULD use the strong role only if its absence would change the meaning of the content.

The strong role is not intended to convey stress or emphasis; for that purpose, the emphasis role is more appropriate.

A document structural element.

Roles for document structure support the accessibility of dynamic web content by helping assistive technologies determine active content versus static document content. Structural roles by themselves do not all map to accessibility APIs, but are used to create widget roles or assist content adaptation for assistive technologies.

structure is an abstract role used for the ontology. Authors MUST NOT use structure role in content.

One or more subscripted characters. See related superscript.

The subscript role is intended to be used only to mark up typographical conventions that have specific meanings; not for typographical presentation for presentation's sake. In general, authors SHOULD use this role only if the absence of the subscript would change the meaning of the content.

One or more superscripted characters. See related superscript.

The superscript role is intended to be used only to mark up typographical conventions that have specific meanings; not for typographical presentation for presentation's sake. In general, authors SHOULD use this role only if the absence of the superscript would change the meaning of the content.

A type of checkbox that represents on/off values, as opposed to checked/unchecked values. See related checkbox.

The aria-checked attribute of a switch indicates whether the input is on (true) or off (false). The mixed value is invalid, and user agents MUST treat a mixed value as equivalent to false for this role.

A switch provides approximately the same functionality as a checkbox and toggle button, but makes it possible for assistive technologies to present the widget in a fashion consistent with its on-screen appearance.

A grouping label providing a mechanism for selecting the tab content that is to be rendered to the user.

If a tabpanel or item in a tabpanel has focus, the associated tab is the currently active tab in the tablist, as defined in Managing Focus. tablist elements, which contain a set of associated tab elements, are typically placed near a series of tabpanel elements, usually preceding it. See the WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices for details on implementing a tab set design pattern.

Authors MUST ensure [=elements=] with role tab are contained in, or [=ARIA/owned=] by, an element with the role tablist.

Authors SHOULD ensure the tabpanel associated with the currently active tab is perceivable to the user.

For a single-selectable tablist, authors SHOULD hide other tabpanel elements from the user until the user selects the tab associated with that tabpanel. For a multi-selectable tablist, authors SHOULD ensure that the tab for each visible tabpanel has the aria-expanded attribute set to true, and that the tabs associated with the remaining hidden tabpanel elements have their aria-expanded attributes set to false.

In either case, authors SHOULD ensure that a selected tab has its aria-selected attribute set to true, that inactive tab elements have their aria-selected attribute set to false, and that the currently selected tab provides a visual indication that it is selected. In the absence of an aria-selected attribute on the current tab, user agents SHOULD indicate to assistive technologies through the platform accessibility API that the currently focused tab is selected.