Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)

ARIA Role

Use ARIA-role shorthand notation to assign roles to phrases to make them accessible to people with disabilities.

Syntax

ARIA role shorthand assigns a "role" attribute to a phrase. The syntax is a plus-sign + immediately followed by one of the WAI-defined accessibility roles. See the bottom of this page of a complete list.

Each phrase may have only one ARIA-role attribute.

semantax +role Textual composition

ARIA role shorthand notation

Shorthand attributes should be placed between a phrase's semantax and its textual composition. Shorthand attributes may optionally be preceded by one or more spaces. At least one space must be used after the last shorthand attribute, before the beginning of the textual composition.

A phrase may have any combination of shorthand attributes (#, ., *, ^, `, +, ? ) and they may specified in any order.

Examples

Here is what ARIA role attributes look like within the body of a manuscript.

menu +menubar {
    li Home
    li Products {
        ul +treeitem {
            li Apps
            li Tools
        }
    }
    li Services {
        ul +treeitem {
            li Consulting
            li Education
        }
    }
    li Contact
}

Identifier shorthand examples

WAI-ARIA Roles

Widget roles

alert
alertdialog
button
checkbox

gridcell

log
marquee

menuitemcheckbox
menuitemradio
option
progressbar
radio
scrollbar
slider
spinbutton
status
tab
tabpanel
textbox
timer
tooltip
treeitem
combobox
grid
listbox

menubar
radiogroup
tablist
tree
treegrid

Document structure roles

columnheader
definition
directory
document
group
heading

list
listitem

note
presentation
region
row
rowgroup
rowheader
separator
toolbar

Landmark roles

application
banner
complementary
contentinfo
form
main
navigation
search