ARIA - Do you need to use ARIA-EXPANDED with ARIA-HIDDEN?

Question

I am new to ARIA roles. If I have tool-tip type functionality, i.e. if someone click the question mark button more text is displayed detailing instruction on how to fill in the form field, should I be using the aria-expanded attribute, the aria-hidden attribute or both? ```

Accepted Answer

Use the RDF model diagram to help:

`aria-expanded` is defined for the `treeitem` role via inheritance.

`aria-hidden` is defined for all roles, but has this caveat:

Note: Authors are advised to avoid using aria-hidden="false" with styles or attributes that have historically prevented rendering in all modalities, such as display:none or visibility:hidden in CSS, or the hidden attribute in HTML 5. At the time of this writing, aria-hidden="false" is known to work inconsistently when used in conjunction with such features. As future implementations improve, use caution and test thoroughly before relying on this approach.

As a result, `aria-expanded` by itself should suffice.

References

- WAI-ARIA Taxonomy

- WAI-ARIA RDF Model

- aria-expanded

- aria-hidden

ARIA - Do you need to use ARIA-EXPANDED with ARIA-HIDDEN?

Solution

Problem