aside element role semantics. (Deprecated)

Rule ID Role 7
Definition aside element must only have role semantics of complementary (default do not set), note, region, search or presentation. NOTE: Deprecated in favor of HTML 3 a more general rule on role restrictions based on ARIA in HTML specification.
Purpose
  • The aside element has role restrictions as part of its definition in the W3C HTML5 Specification.
  • The aside element is used for tangentially related content to main content of the page and are often represented as sidebars in printed typography.
  • Tangentially related content should be identified as a role="complementary", role="search" or role of role="note".
  • The difference between complementary and search roles and the note role is that complementary and search are landmark roles and support and note is not a landmark role.
  • The search role should be used if the content of the aside element are form controls or widgets used for searching the website content.
Required No for HTML5 and ARIA Techniques ruleset mapping
WCAG Success Criteria

1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A, Primary Success Criterion)

Other Related Success Criterion:

Rule Category Styling/Content
Scope Element
Target Resources aside element
  • aside
Techniques
  • If the content of the aside element is used for tangentially related content to main content of the page use role="complementary" to make the content part of the landmark navigation of the page.
  • If the content of the aside element is used for website content search form controls use role="search" to identify the search semantics and make the content part of the landmark navigation of the page.
  • If the content of the aside element is used for tangentially related content to main content of the page use role="note". The note role is not part of the landmark navigation of the page and therefore is less commonly used.
  • If the content of the aside element is used as a sub-section of another landmark use role="region" with an accessible name to identify the sub-section.
  • If the content of the aside element is used for any other purpose than for tangentially related content to main content use role="presentation" to remove the aside semantics.
Informational Links