HTML Guide

A <a> tag element is missing required attributes, depending on other present attributes.

Depending on the use of other HTML attributes, an <a> tag may require additional attributes. For example, when using aria-selected to build a tab list, this is an example of valid code using role, aria-selected, aria-controls and aria-labelledby:

<div class="tab-interface">
  <div role="tablist" aria-label="Sample Tabs">
    <span
      role="tab"
      aria-selected="true"
      aria-controls="panel-1"
      id="tab-1"
      tabindex="0">
      First Tab
    </span>
    <span
      role="tab"
      aria-selected="false"
      aria-controls="panel-2"
      id="tab-2"
      tabindex="-1">
      Second Tab
    </span>
  </div>
  <div id="panel-1" role="tabpanel" tabindex="0" aria-labelledby="tab-1">
    <p>Content for the first panel</p>
  </div>
  <div id="panel-2" role="tabpanel" tabindex="0" aria-labelledby="tab-2" hidden>
    <p>Content for the second panel</p>
  </div>
</div>

There can only be one visible <main> element in a document. If more are needed (for example for switching between them with JavaScript), only one can be visible, the others should be hidden toggling the hidden attribute.

Example of 2 main elements, where only one is visible:

<main>
  <h1>Active main element</h1>
  <!-- content -->
</main>

<main hidden>
  <h1>Hidden main element</h1>
  <!-- content -->
</main>

A <table> contains a <tr> row that has less <td> columns than the column count established by the first row. Check the table to ensure all rows have the same number of columns.

For example, in the following table, the first <tr> row defines that it’s 2 columns wide, but the second <tr> row tries to use only 1 column:

<table>
  <!-- This first row sets the table as 2 columns wide -->
  <tr>
    <td>First</td>
    <td>Second</td>
  </tr>

  <!-- This second row has only 1 column -->
  <tr>
    <td>Wrong</td>
  </tr>
</table>

To fix the W3C HTML Validator issue stating that an element with a role="menuitem" must be contained in, or owned by, an element with role="menubar" or role="menu", you need to ensure that your menuitem elements are properly nested within a menubar or menu element. This is important for accessibility, as it helps assistive technologies understand the structure and relationship of the elements.

The menuitem role indicates the element is an option in a set of choices contained by a menu or menubar.

Here is a step-by-step guide to fixing this issue:

1. Using role="menubar"

If your menuitem elements are part of a horizontal menu (like a navigation bar), they should be nested within an element with role="menubar".

Example:

<nav role="menubar">
  <div role="menuitem">Home</div>
  <div role="menuitem">About</div>
  <div role="menuitem">Contact</div>
</nav>

2. Using role="menu"

If your menuitem elements are part of a submenu or a vertical menu, they should be contained within an element with role="menu".

Example:

<div role="menu">
  <div role="menuitem">Item 1</div>
  <div role="menuitem">Item 2</div>
  <div role="menuitem">Item 3</div>
</div>

Ensuring Proper Nesting

Ensure that all your menuitem elements are either directly or indirectly (via a child-parent relationship) contained within a menubar or menu element.

Complete Example with Nested Menus:

Here is a more complex example, including nested menus for a drop-down scenario.

Example:

<nav role="menubar">
  <div role="menuitem">Home</div>
  <div role="menuitem">
    About
    <div role="menu">
      <div role="menuitem">Team</div>
      <div role="menuitem">History</div>
    </div>
  </div>
  <div role="menuitem">Contact</div>
</nav>

In this example, the main navigation (menubar) contains menuitem elements, and one of those menuitem elements contains a nested menu with additional menuitem elements inside it.

By ensuring your menuitem elements are contained within appropriate parent elements (menubar or menu), you will resolve the W3C HTML Validator issue and improve your web page’s accessibility.

Elements with the role tab must either be a child of an element with the tablist role, or have their id part of the aria-owns property of a tablist.

An element with the tab role controls the visibility of an associated element with the tabpanel role. The common user experience pattern is a group of visual tabs above, or to the side of, a content area, and selecting a different tab changes the content and makes the selected tab more prominent than the other tabs.

Example:

<div class="tabs">
  <div role="tablist" aria-label="Sample Tabs">
    <button role="tab" aria-selected="true" aria-controls="panel-1" id="tab-1" tabindex="0">
          First Tab
    </button>
    <button role="tab" aria-selected="false" aria-controls="panel-2" id="tab-2" tabindex="-1">
          Second Tab
     </button>
  </div>
  <div id="panel-1" role="tabpanel" tabindex="0" aria-labelledby="tab-1">
    <p>Content for the first panel</p>
  </div>
  <div id="panel-2" role="tabpanel" tabindex="0" aria-labelledby="tab-2" hidden>
    <p>Content for the second panel</p>
  </div>
</div>

A button element, or an element with the role=button attribute, is not allowed to be nested inside an <a> element.

When an img element has an empty alt attribute, its role is implicitly decorative, so it must not specify a role attribute.

The alert role can be used to tell the user an element has been dynamically updated. Screen readers will instantly start reading out the updated content when the role is added. The element <ul> doesn’t accept this kind of role, consider using other element like <p> or <div>.

The alert role is used to communicate an important and usually time-sensitive message to the user. When this role is added to an element, the browser will send out an accessible alert event to assistive technology products which can then notify the user about it. The alert role is most useful for information that requires the user’s immediate attention.

An element like <h1>, <h2>, etc., used to define a heading, does not accept the button role.

The following HTML code is invalid because the <h2> element can’t have role="button"

<h2 role="button">Some heading</h2>

Instead, you can nest the <h2> inside a <div> with that role. In this case however, browsers automatically apply role presentation to all descendant elements of any button element as it is a role that does not support semantic children.

<div role="button">
  <h2>Some heading</h2>
</div>

A <li> element, used to define a list item, does not accept the button role.

This HTML code is invalid because the <li> elements can’t have role="button":

<ul>
  <li role="button">One</li>
  <li role="button">Two</li>
</ul>