ARIA: generic role

The generic role creates a nameless container element which has no semantic meaning on its own.

Note: The generic role is the implicit role of generic elements used by user agents. It is included here for completeness of documentation. It should not be used by web authors.

Description

While ARIA is primarily used to express semantics, there are some elements that shouldn't expose a semantic name to assistive technologies. The generic role indicates an element's role is equivalent to that of the non-semantic <div> and <span> elements.

The generic role is intended for use as the implicit role of generic elements in host languages for use by user agents only; not for use by developers. Instead, to remove implicit accessibility semantics, use presentation or none, the <div> and <span> elements that have no semantic meaning, or semantic container roles such as group to semantically group descendants in a named container.

Like an element with role presentation, an element with role="generic" can provide a limited number of accessible states and properties for its descendants, such as aria-live attributes. However, unlike elements with role presentation, generic elements are exposed in accessibility APIs so that assistive technologies can gather certain properties such as layout and bounds.

Because the generic role is nameless, the aria-labelledby and aria-label attributes are prohibited. Because the role is generic, the aria-roledescription and aria-brailleroledescription attributes are also prohibited.

Note: The element with role="generic" should not have an accessible name or role description.

Associated WAI-ARIA roles, states, and properties

None. If a global ARIA state and property is set, generic or none will be ignored, and the implicit role of the element will be used.

Examples

This role is for use by user agents and not by developers. As such, no appropriate example exists.

Specifications

Specification
Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA)
# generic

See also