Names, roles & states
An Outdated ARIA Role Is Used
The page uses a role that has been retired from ARIA, so screen readers may ignore it or handle it differently, and people can't tell what the content is.
aria-deprecated-roleWCAG 2.0Introduced in WCAG 2.0.Level AA — the minimum. Missing it blocks people outright.
- Status
- MinorMinor — Cosmetic, or best practice.CurrentScanners run this rule today.
- Owner
- DevTest
- Audit
- AutomatedA scanner finds it, and a clean scan means it's fixed.
Why it matters
A role tells screen readers what something is, such as a list or a button. ARIA is the set of attributes that adds this extra meaning for assistive technology. Some old roles, like directory, doc-endnote and doc-biblioentry, have been retired.
Browsers and screen readers may drop support for retired roles at any time. Then the content loses its meaning, and people who can't see the screen don't know it's a list or how many items it holds.
Who it affects
| Who | What they experience | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Screen reader users | They may hear plain text with no hint it's a list, or a different role on each screen reader. | Partial impact |
| Low-vision users (magnification) | Affected only if they also use a screen reader. | Partial impact |
Business & product impact
| Area | Why | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Legal | It risks failing WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value at Level A. Complaints under Australia's Disability Discrimination Act point to WCAG 2.2 Level AA, and EN 301 549 applies in Europe. | Moderate impact |
| SEO | No real search benefit, so don't sell it as one. | Low impact |
| Brand trust | A small issue alone, but it signals code that hasn't kept up with standards. | Low impact |
| Cost to fix | Usually a quick swap to a current role or plain HTML. Fix it in the shared template. | High impact |
Fixing it in code
A list of links using `directory`
Don't
<div role="directory">
<a href="/a">Annual report</a>
<a href="/b">Budget</a>
</div>A screen reader says: “Varies: often just "Annual report, link" with no list”
Do
<ul>
<li><a href="/a">Annual report</a></li>
<li><a href="/b">Budget</a></li>
</ul>A screen reader says: “List, 2 items. Annual report, link”
A real HTML list is supported everywhere and never goes out of date.
Endnotes in a digital book
Don't
<section role="doc-endnotes">
<div role="doc-endnote" id="n1">See chapter 2.</div>
</section>A screen reader says: “Varies: the note may not be announced as part of a list”
Do
<section role="doc-endnotes">
<ol>
<li id="n1">See chapter 2.</li>
</ol>
</section>A screen reader says: “Endnotes, list, 1 item. See chapter 2.”
doc-endnote is retired. Use ordinary list items inside the endnotes section.
Designer's handoff note
No visual change is needed. If you annotate designs, mark groups of links as "list", not "directory".
Quick test
Tool
Browser DevTools (opens in a new tab) (free in Chrome, Edge or Firefox)
Checklist
- Pass
- No matches are found.
- Fail
- Any match is found.
What a green scan still misses
A scanner finds retired roles reliably. It can't tell whether your replacement fits the content, so check the new role makes sense.
Reference
- Rule ID
aria-deprecated-role- Raised by
- axe-core: “Deprecated ARIA roles must not be used”
- WCAG
- 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (opens in a new tab) · Level A · since WCAG 2.0
- Other standards
- EN 301 549 9.4.1.2 · RGAA 7.1.1
- Last reviewed
- 14 October 2026