ARIA roles that do not suit the element
Automated check aria-allowed-role, run with axe-core
- WCAG
- Best practice: a recommendation, not a WCAG success criterion
- Severity
- Moderate: a degraded experience
- Typical effort
- Quick win, under 1 hour
- Category
- Code quality
Who this affects
Screen reader users.
Why it matters
Overriding an element with an unsuitable role, such as role="button" on a heading, removes its native meaning and can make the page structure confusing.
How to fix it
Remove the role, or use an element whose native meaning matches what it does.
Check your own website
The free scan tests 3 pages against WCAG 2.2 A and AA in about 30 seconds. No sign-up.
Related checks: Code quality
- ARIA attributes used on the wrong elements
- Braille-only ARIA attributes have no spoken equivalent
- ARIA attributes used in ways the role does not allow
- Deprecated ARIA roles are used
- The page body is hidden from assistive technology
- ARIA labels placed on elements that cannot carry them
- ARIA roles are missing their required attributes
- Menus, lists or tabs are missing their required child elements