HTML Checking for Large Sites

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>

Learn more at:

• MDN: ARIA tab role

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.

Learn more about the alert ARIA role:

• W3C: WAI-ARIA - alert role
• MDN: ARIA alert role
• MDN: Using the alert role

<input> elements can’t have a search role. Instead, try with <input type="search">.

<input> elements of type search are text fields designed for the user to enter search queries into. These are functionally identical to text inputs, but may be styled differently depending on the user agent.

The search role is a landmark. Landmarks can be used by assistive technology to quickly identify and navigate to large sections of the document. The search role is added to the container element that encompasses the items and objects that, as a whole, combine to create search functionality. When a <form> is a search form, use the search role on the form.

Example of a search form:

<form role="search">

<label for="search-input">Search this site</label>

<input type="search" id="search-input" name="search">

<input value="Submit" type="submit">

</form>

Learn more:

• MDN: input type search
• MDN: ARIA search role

A <div> element is using ARIA attributes, but its role has not been defined. ARIA defines semantics that can be applied to elements, with these divided into roles (defining a type of user interface element) and states and properties that are supported by a role. Authors must assign an ARIA role and the appropriate states and properties to an element during its life-cycle, unless the element already has appropriate ARIA semantics (via use of an appropriate HTML element). Examples:

<!-- This div uses ARIA but its role is not clear, so it's invalid. -->

<div aria-expanded="true">...</div>

<!-- This div defines clearly its role, so it's valid. -->

<div role="navigation" aria-expanded="true">...</div>

<!-- Nav elements have an implicit navigation role so we don't need the role attribute. -->

<nav aria-expanded="true">...</nav>

Read about Using ARIA: Roles, states and properties.

Using the <aside> element will automatically communicate a section has a role of complementary, so specifying the role="complementary" is redundant.

A single <img> element is used to embed an image, so adding the img role to it is redundant.

The ARIA img role can be used to identify multiple elements inside page content that should be considered as a single image. These elements could be images, code snippets, text, emojis, or other content that can be combined to deliver information in a visual manner, for example:

<div role="img" aria-label="Description of the overall image">

<img src="graphic1.png" alt="">

<img src="graphic2.png">

</div>

Learn more:

• MDN: ARIA img role

The navigation landmark role is used to identify major groups of links used for navigating through a website or page content. It can be added to an element that contains navigation links by using role="navigation", but instead it’s preferable to just use the <nav> element. In that case, it’s unnecessary to make the navigation role explicit. Examples:

<div role="navigation">

<!-- this is a valid way to define a navigation role -->

</div>

<nav>

<!-- but this is shorter and uses correct semantic HTML -->

</nav>

Read more about the nav element and the ARIA Navigation Role.