Bad value “text” for attribute “role” on element “span”.

A span element cannot have role="text" because text is not a valid WAI-ARIA role.

The role attribute accepts only values defined in the WAI-ARIA specification. Common valid roles include button, alert, status, img, presentation, and many others, but text is not among them.

The non-standard role="text" was sometimes used as a workaround to prevent screen readers like VoiceOver from splitting inline elements into separate announcements. For example, when a span wraps mixed text and inline elements, some screen readers read each child element as a separate item. Using role="text" forced them to treat the content as a single text run. However, this was never part of the ARIA spec and causes a validation error.

If the goal is to group inline content so screen readers announce it as one continuous phrase, use role="group" with an aria-label that provides the full text. Alternatively, if the span has no semantic purpose, remove the role attribute entirely.

HTML examples

Invalid usage

<p>
  <span role="text">
    Sale price: <strong>$49.99</strong>
  </span>
</p>

Valid alternatives

Remove the role if it serves no accessibility purpose:

<p>
  <span>
    Sale price: <strong>$49.99</strong>
  </span>
</p>

Or use role="group" with aria-label to ensure screen readers announce the content as a single phrase:

<p>
  <span role="group" aria-label="Sale price: $49.99">
    Sale price: <strong>$49.99</strong>
  </span>
</p>

Learn more:

MDN Reference

ARIA Roles (MDN)

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MDN Reference

The span element (MDN)

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MDN Reference

Using ARIA: Roles, states, and properties (MDN)

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