Aria Required Children
Critical - WCAG Level A
The 'aria-required-children' rule addresses the requirement that certain ARIA roles must contain specific child roles to maintain a semantically correct and accessible structure. For example, an element with the ARIA role of 'list' should contain elements with the role 'listitem'. This requirement ensures that assistive technologies can accurately interpret the structure and relationships within the content, providing users with disabilities a coherent and navigable experience.
When these child roles are missing, screen readers and other assistive technologies may not correctly announce the structure of the content, leading to confusion or misinterpretation. This can significantly impact users who rely on these technologies to understand and navigate web content.
To fix this issue:
Identify the ARIA role that requires specific child roles and ensure that the necessary child elements are present. For instance, if you have a 'list' role, ensure that its children have the 'listitem' role. Use semantic HTML elements wherever possible, as they inherently provide the correct roles and relationships. For example, use <ul> or <ol> for lists and <li> for list items.
Best practices:
Include using native HTML elements instead of ARIA roles whenever possible, as they are more reliably supported by browsers and assistive technologies. Additionally, ensure that the structure of your document logically represents the content hierarchy and relationships.
Common mistakes:
Include using ARIA roles unnecessarily or incorrectly, such as applying a 'list' role to a <div> without the necessary child roles, or misusing roles that do not match the content's semantic meaning. Always validate your ARIA roles and ensure they are necessary and correctly implemented.