group role (aria)

Expectation: convey its role

Rationale:

A screen reader user needs to be aware that elements are within a group

Strength of this expectation for different types of assistive technologies:

• Screen Readers: MUST
• Voice Control: NA

Examples:

• The role name is announced when entering the group.
• If focus is outside of the group, then the accessible name of the group is announced when focus jumps to a control within the group.

Expectation: convey the name if named

Rationale:

A screen reader user needs to be aware of the name of group

Strength of this expectation for different types of assistive technologies:

• Screen Readers: MUST
• Voice Control: NA

Examples:

• The accessible name of the group is announced when entering the group.

Expectation: convey the boundaries of the group

Rationale:

A screen reader user needs to be aware when they enter and exit a group

Strength of this expectation for different types of assistive technologies:

• Screen Readers: SHOULD
• Voice Control: NA

Examples:

• In reading mode, there might be a stop for both the start end end of the group. When entering the group, something like "group name, group" might be announced. When leaving the group, something like "end of group" might be announced.
• In reading mode, there might not be a stop for the start and end of the group. In this case, the screen reader might announce the group name when the user navigates to the first child and announce that the user is leaving the group when the user navigates out of the group.
• In interaction mode, there will not be a stop for the start and end of the group. In this case, the screen reader might announce the group name when the user jumps to an interactive child and announce that the user is leaving the group when the user jumps out of the group.

Expectation: convey a role or boundaries if it is not named

Strength of this expectation for different types of assistive technologies:

• Screen Readers: MUST NOT
• Voice Control: NA

Notes:

This expectation describes the observed consistency between different screen readers. There are no standards that describe this behavior. When a group is not named but is used in certain contexts, browsers use the group role to inform the automatic generation of property values such as posinset and setsize. However, screen readers do not expose a name, role, or boundaries for the element with the group role.