feat(aria-allowed/prohibited-attr, aria-required-parent/children): partially support element internals role by straker · Pull Request #5080 · dequelabs/axe-core

straker · 2026-04-22T22:41:21Z

Note that this can only support rules that don't select for [role] on the element itself, which is why we can't support aria-required-attr yet, or any rules that look for specific roles (e.g. aria-command-name). Additionally we can only test the supported rules partially as those rules look for an element with [role]. For example, for aria-required-parent we can test that the parent of an element with [role] has a required internal role, but we cannot test a child with an internal role has a required parent.

Fully supporting rules can only be supported once we've figured out how to update our selectors to look at more than just CSS selectors (planned but not fully spec'd out yet).

Closes: #5039
Closes: #4259

…pport element internals implicit role

straker · 2026-04-22T22:43:48Z

    fixture.setAttribute('id', 'fixture');
    document.body.insertBefore(fixture, document.body.firstChild);
  }
+  testUtils.fixture = fixture;


Adding fixture to the testutils objects makes getting it a bit easier instead of having to do const fixture = document.querySelector('#fixture') in every test that needs it.

straker · 2026-04-22T22:45:59Z

@@ -1,170 +1,115 @@
-describe('aria-required-parent', function () {
-  'use strict';
+describe('aria-required-parent', () => {


Most of this file is cleaning it up to match the new es6 style. Bottom of the file has the newest tests.

straker · 2026-04-22T22:47:22Z

    } else if (role || hasGlobalAriaOrFocusable) {
-      const attr = globalAriaAttr || 'tabindex';
+      const attr =
+        globalAriaAttr || (vNode.hasAttr('tabindex') ? 'tabindex' : undefined);


This code assumed that if an element had a role it also had a global aria attr available, which wasn't true. This lead to a custom element with an internal role to always have [tabindex] added to the selector even though that attr didn't exist.

straker · 2026-04-22T22:50:28Z

+  describe('ElementInternals', () => {
+    it('should detect incorrectly used attributes', () => {
+      const vNode = queryFixture(
+        '<testutils-element with-role="link" id="target" tabindex="1" aria-selected="true"></testutils-element>'


See the changes to the test/testutils.js file for how this test custom element works.

chutchins25

Nice work! A few questions for you:

Are we ok bundling large refactors like this in with the feature work? Would it be worth splitting the ES6 cleanup into its own PR next time to keep the feature diff focused? CLAUDE.md §3 leans that way, but curious if there's a reason the bundle made sense here.
On naming — since internals lands on VirtualNode as public-ish surface (consumers can reach it through any VirtualNode instance), renaming it later would be a breaking change. Was elementInternals considered as a more explicit name, or is the short form intentional?

Co-authored-by: Chris Hutchins <[email protected]>

straker · 2026-04-23T15:58:58Z

Are we ok bundling large refactors like this in with the feature work? Would it be worth splitting the ES6 cleanup into its own PR next time to keep the feature diff focused? CLAUDE.md §3 leans that way, but curious if there's a reason the bundle made sense here.

Yep. Any time we edit files that use the old syntax we convert the file first to the new syntax and then add the changes. It allows us to slowly convert the files over time without having to take the time to do it on it's own.

On naming — since internals lands on VirtualNode as public-ish surface (consumers can reach it through any VirtualNode instance), renaming it later would be a breaking change. Was elementInternals considered as a more explicit name, or is the short form intentional?

I can rename it

chutchins25

Took another pass. Naming and bundling questions from the earlier review are resolved on my end — thanks for the rename. Two small fixture tag-mismatch nits noted inline; not blockers.

Small easy change. Applied it.

chutchins25

Line Numbers got messed up on previous review for suggested changes.

Another quick fix. Applying.

chutchins25

Looks good to me.

WilcoFiers

Looks solid. Couple nitpicky things. Leaving it to you if you want to pick those up.

WilcoFiers · 2026-05-06T10:33:41Z

 export default function getElementInternals(node) {
+  // internals can only be attached to custom-elements
+  // trying to do otherwise results in an error "Cannot attach ElementInternals to a customized built-in or non-custom element"
+  if (isHtmlElement(node)) {


What about SVG or MathML?

Both apparently don't define the function in any browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox). Trying to attach internals reports it's not a function. I'm not sure how we would short circuit svg or math child elements though since we don't maintain a list of those anywhere.

Co-authored-by: Wilco Fiers <[email protected]>

…elabs/axe-core into elm-internals-implicit-role

Testing this was interesting as it doesn't get added to the `axe` object. I needed to test the logic of the code but the way we have to build this for the extension script means we only get the returned object when the file is injected, so I split out the logic into it's own file that is built separately and tested. This uses the `testutils` changes from #5080, so will fail until that is merged into develop Closes: #5041

## [4.12.0](v4.11.4...v4.12.0) (2026-06-01) ### Features - add gather-internals.js external script ([#5099](#5099)) ([c61d58b](c61d58b)), closes [#5080](#5080) - **aria-allowed/prohibited-attr, aria-required-parent/children:** partially support element internals role ([#5080](#5080)) ([417b48a](417b48a)), closes [#5039](#5039) [#4259](#4259) - **axe.externalAPIs:** add public api for setting elementInternal data ([#5105](#5105)) ([63bab8f](63bab8f)) - **core:** expose normalizeRunOptions ([#4998](#4998)) ([b8e6a59](b8e6a59)) - expose axe.resetLocale() to restore the default locale ([#5108](#5108)) ([c2b5292](c2b5292)), closes [#5107](#5107) - **getRules:** include rule enabled state in returned objects ([#5118](#5118)) ([75bf772](75bf772)), closes [#5116](#5116) - **list,listitem:** support element internals role ([#5119](#5119)) ([7d9d696](7d9d696)) - **new-rule:** check that aria-tab have an accessible name ([#5001](#5001)) ([0d4e4e7](0d4e4e7)), closes [#4842](#4842) - **rules:** deprecate landmark-complementary-is-top-level rules ([#4992](#4992)) ([9e09139](9e09139)), closes [#4950](#4950) - **utils:** add `getElementInternals` function ([#5077](#5077)) ([1c15f82](1c15f82)) ### Bug Fixes - **aria-allowed-attr:** restrict br and wbr elements to aria-hidden only ([#4974](#4974)) ([c6245e7](c6245e7)) - **aria-conditional-attr:** add support for radio ([#5100](#5100)) ([8223c98](8223c98)) - **aria-valid-attr-value:** handle multiple aria-errormessage IDs ([#4973](#4973)) ([0489e30](0489e30)) - **aria:** prevent getOwnedVirtual from returning duplicate nodes ([#4987](#4987)) ([48ca955](48ca955)), closes [#4840](#4840) - **commons/text:** exclude natively hidden elements from aria-labelledby accessible name ([#5076](#5076)) ([ea7202c](ea7202c)), closes [#4704](#4704) - **DqElement:** avoid calling constructors with cloneNode ([#5013](#5013)) ([0281fa1](0281fa1)) - **existing-rule:** aria-busy now shows an error message for a use with unallowed children ([#5017](#5017)) ([2067b87](2067b87)) - **helpUrl:** ensure axe.configure always updates the help URLs ([#5114](#5114)) ([c4f60ff](c4f60ff)) - **label-content-name-mismatch:** match visible text with aria-label and exclude invisible text ([#5096](#5096)) ([3a012a1](3a012a1)) - **locale:** ensure all subtags are correctly set ([#5112](#5112)) ([13005ed](13005ed)) - **scrollable-region-focusable:** clarify the issue is in safari ([#4995](#4995)) ([4ec5211](4ec5211)), closes [WebKit#190870](https://github.com/dequelabs/WebKit/issues/190870) [WebKit#277290](https://github.com/dequelabs/WebKit/issues/277290) - **scrollable-region-focusable:** do not fail scroll areas when all content is visible without scrolling ([#4993](#4993)) ([838707a](838707a)) - **target-size:** determine offset using clientRects if target is display:inline ([#5012](#5012)) ([a4b8091](a4b8091)) - **target-size:** ignore position: fixed elements that are offscreen when page is scrolled ([#5066](#5066)) ([1229a6e](1229a6e)), closes [#5065](#5065) - **target-size:** ignore widgets that are inline with other inline elements ([#5000](#5000)) ([a8dd81b](a8dd81b)) - **utils/getAncestry:** escape node name ([#5079](#5079)) ([d1fabaa](d1fabaa)), closes [#5078](#5078) - **utils:** Add null check to parseCrossOriginStylesheet, closes [#5074](#5074) ([#5075](#5075)) ([f12ef32](f12ef32)) - **utils:** update isShadowRoot to use spec-compliant custom element regex ([#5059](#5059)) ([edc6ce2](edc6ce2)), closes [#5030](#5030) This PR was opened by a robot 🤖 🎉

straker added 2 commits April 22, 2026 16:32

feat(aria-allowed/prohivited-attr, aria-required-parent/children): su…

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…pport element internals implicit role

typo

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straker requested a review from a team as a code owner April 22, 2026 22:41

straker commented Apr 22, 2026

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straker changed the title ~~feat(aria-allowed/prohivited-attr, aria-required-parent/children): partially support element internals role~~ feat(aria-allowed/prohibited-attr, aria-required-parent/children): partially support element internals role Apr 22, 2026

straker commented Apr 22, 2026

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chutchins25 reviewed Apr 23, 2026

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Comment thread lib/core/utils/get-element-internals.js Outdated

Comment thread test/checks/aria/required-parent.js

Comment thread test/core/utils/get-element-internals.js Outdated

Update test/core/utils/get-element-internals.js

d5d9e86

Co-authored-by: Chris Hutchins <[email protected]>

straker added 2 commits April 23, 2026 10:27

suggestions

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typo

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chutchins25 self-requested a review April 28, 2026 15:51

chutchins25 reviewed Apr 29, 2026

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Comment thread test/checks/aria/aria-prohibited-attr.js Outdated

Update test/checks/aria/aria-prohibited-attr.js

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Small easy change. Applied it.

chutchins25 reviewed Apr 29, 2026

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Comment thread test/checks/aria/aria-prohibited-attr.js Outdated

Update test/checks/aria/aria-prohibited-attr.js

a54d973

Another quick fix. Applying.

chutchins25 previously approved these changes Apr 29, 2026

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WilcoFiers previously approved these changes May 6, 2026

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Update lib/commons/aria/implicit-role.js

2bac0e2

Co-authored-by: Wilco Fiers <[email protected]>

straker dismissed stale reviews from WilcoFiers and chutchins25 via 2bac0e2 May 6, 2026 15:05

straker added 4 commits May 6, 2026 10:18

Merge branch 'elm-internals-implicit-role' of https://github.com/dequ…

ac73137

…elabs/axe-core into elm-internals-implicit-role

suggestions

cd6d995

update global map to match new community protocol name

a8cfbc6

Merge branch 'develop' into elm-internals-implicit-role

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straker force-pushed the elm-internals-implicit-role branch from e8a0b99 to 2a1dfe1 Compare May 7, 2026 15:39

straker added 4 commits May 7, 2026 10:09

Merge branch 'develop' into elm-internals-implicit-role

f1cabf4

update

7f8c2f1

update feature flag to look for globalThis

ff30cf3

update feature flag to use globalThis

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straker mentioned this pull request May 7, 2026

feat: add gather-internals.js external script #5099

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move feature flag to props

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WilcoFiers approved these changes May 12, 2026

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straker merged commit 417b48a into develop May 12, 2026
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straker deleted the elm-internals-implicit-role branch May 12, 2026 16:16

attest-team-ci mentioned this pull request Jun 1, 2026

chore(release): v4.12.0 #5122

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chutchins25 mentioned this pull request Jun 16, 2026

feat(aria-errormessage): honor element internals values #5173

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