Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.1

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

Alerts are used to convey messages to alert the user. In the case of audio warnings this is an accessible alternative for a hearing-impaired user. The alert role goes on the node containing the alert message. Alerts are specialized forms of the status role, which will be processed as an atomic live region.

Alerts are assertive live regions and will be processed as such by assistive technologies. Neither authors nor user agents are required to set or manage focus to them in order for them to be processed. Since alerts are not required to receive focus, content authors SHOULD NOT require users to close an alert. 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. If an alert requires focus to close the alert, then content authors SHOULD use alertdialog instead.

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 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 edit field or an OK 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 descendants 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 region 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.

User agents SHOULD treat elements with the role of banner as navigational landmarks.

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

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.

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.

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 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.

A composite widget containing a single-line textbox and another element, such as a listbox or grid, that can dynamically pop up to help the user set the value of the textbox.

Authors MUST ensure an element with role combobox contains or owns a text input element with role textbox or searchbox and that the text input has aria-multiline set to false. If the combobox provides autocompletion behavior for the text input as described in aria-autocomplete, authors MUST set aria-autocomplete on the textbox element to the value that corresponds to the provided behavior.

Typically, the default state of a combobox is collapsed. In the collapsed state, only the textbox element of a combobox is visible. A combobox is said to be expanded when both the textbox and a secondary element that serves as its popup 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. Elements with the role combobox have an implicit aria-expanded value of false.

When a combobox is expanded, authors MUST ensure it contains or owns an element that has a role of listbox, tree, grid, or dialog. This element is the combobox popup. When the combobox is expanded, authors MUST set aria-controls on the textbox 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 type of its popup.

To be keyboard accessible, authors SHOULD manage focus of descendants for all instances of this role, as described in Managing Focus. When a combobox receives focus, authors SHOULD ensure focus is placed on the textbox element.

Authors SHOULD provide keyboard mechanisms for moving focus between the textbox element and the elements contained in the popup. For example, one common convention is that Down Arrow moves focus from the text 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 textbox element. When a descendant of the popup element is active, authors MAY set aria-activedescendant on the textbox to a value that refers to the active element within the popup while focus remains on the textbox element.

<div aria-label="Tag" role="combobox" aria-expanded="true" aria-owns="owned_listbox" aria-haspopup="listbox">
    <input type="text" aria-autocomplete="list" aria-controls="owned_listbox" aria-activedescendant="selected_option">
div>
<ul role="listbox" id="owned_listbox">
    <li role="option">Zebrali>
    <li role="option" id="selected_option">Zoomli>
ul>

The ARIA 1.0 specification describes a combobox pattern where a text input element has the combobox role and owns a listbox element. User agents, assistive technologies, and conformance checkers SHOULD continue to support the ARIA 1.0 pattern so that existing implementations of the ARIA 1.0 pattern remain functional.

The features and behaviors of combobox implementations vary widely. Consequently, there are many important authoring considerations. See the WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices Guide [wai-aria-practices-1.1] for additional details on implementing combobox design patterns.

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

A supporting section of the document, designed to be complementary to the main content at a similar level in the DOM hierarchy, but remains meaningful when separated from 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.

User agents SHOULD treat elements with the role of complementary as navigational landmarks.

A widget that may contain navigable descendants or 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.

A large perceivable region that contains information about the parent document.

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

User agents SHOULD treat elements with the role of contentinfo as navigational landmarks.

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

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.

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 SHOULD provide a dialog label, 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.

A list of references to members of a group, such as a static table of contents.

Authors SHOULD use this role for 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.

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 [wai-aria-practices-1.1] for additional details on implementing a feed design pattern.

A perceivable section of content that typically contains a graphical document, images, 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 reference text serving as a caption using aria-describedby. Authors MAY provide a label using aria-label or MAY reference text serving as a label using aria-labelledby.

Assistive technologies SHOULD enable users to quickly navigate to figures. Mainstream 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 be 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. For search facilities, authors SHOULD use the search role and not the generic form role. Authors SHOULD provide a visible label for the form referenced with aria-labelledby. 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.

User agents SHOULD treat elements with the role of form as navigational landmarks.

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 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 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 Guide [wai-aria-practices-1.1] 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 owned by, an element with the role row.

A set of user interface objects which are 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 logical collection of items in a widget such as children in a tree widget forming a collection of siblings in a hierarchy, or a collection of items having the same container in a directory. However, when a group is used in the context of list, authors MUST limit its children to listitem 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 the section a role of region or a standard landmark role.

A heading for a section of the page.

Often, heading elements will be referenced with the aria-labelledby attribute of the section for which they serve as a heading. If headings are organized into a logical outline, the aria-level attribute is used to indicate the nesting level.

A container for a collection of elements that form an 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 elements with a role of img be perceivable, authors MUST provide alternative text or a label determined by the accessible name calculation.

A generic type of widget that allows user input.

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.

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. Mainstream 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.

A section containing listitem elements. See related listbox.

Lists contain children whose role is listitem, or elements whose role is group which in turn contains 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.

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 listbox have an implicit aria-orientation value of vertical.

A single item in a list or directory.

Authors MUST ensure elements with role listitem are contained in, or owned by, an element with the role list or group.

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.

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 the user agent through a dialog or by assistive technologies.

User agents SHOULD treat elements with the role of main as navigational landmarks.

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

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§

<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML">
  <mrow>
    <mi>xmi>
    <mo>=mo>
    <mfrac>
      <mrow>
        <mo form="prefix">−mo>
        <mi>bmi>
        <mo>±mo>
        <msqrt>
          <msup>
            <mi>bmi>
            <mn>2mn>
          msup>
          <mo>−mo>
          <mn>4mn>
          <mo>⁢mo>
          <mi>ami>
          <mo>⁢mo>
          <mi>cmi>
        msqrt>
      mrow>
      <mrow>
        <mn>2mn>
        <mo>⁢mo>
        <mi>ami>
      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.