What is aria-query?
The aria-query npm package is a library that provides a set of utilities for querying and interacting with ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) roles, states, and properties. It is designed to help developers create more accessible web applications by providing an easy way to access and manipulate ARIA attributes.
What are aria-query's main functionalities?
Querying ARIA roles
This feature allows developers to query information about ARIA roles. The code sample demonstrates how to import the 'roles' map from the package and retrieve information about the 'button' role.
import { roles } from 'aria-query';
console.log(roles.get('button'));
Querying ARIA states and properties
This feature enables querying ARIA states and properties. The code sample shows how to import the 'aria' map and get details about the 'aria-hidden' property.
import { aria } from 'aria-query';
console.log(aria.get('aria-hidden'));
Mapping HTML elements to ARIA roles
This feature provides a mapping between HTML elements and their corresponding ARIA roles. The code sample illustrates how to get the ARIA roles associated with the 'button' HTML element.
import { elementRoles } from 'aria-query';
const map = elementRoles.get('button');
console.log(map);
Other packages similar to aria-query
react-aria
React Aria is a library of React Hooks that provides accessible UI primitives for building React applications. It is similar to aria-query in that it helps with accessibility concerns but is more focused on providing ready-to-use components and hooks for React.
ally.js
ally.js is a JavaScript library that simplifies certain accessibility features, interactions, and behaviors. It provides a higher-level abstraction over ARIA attributes and focuses on enabling accessible interactions, which is a broader scope compared to the more attribute-focused aria-query.
ARIA Query

Programmatic access to the WAI-ARIA 1.2 Roles Model.
This package tracks the W3C Recommendation (last update: 6 June 2023).
CDN URL: https://unpkg.com/aria-query
Building the src/etc
files
The files under src/etc
are generated by the breakUpAriaJSON
script.
To change them, edit the file scripts/roles.json
then run:
node ./scripts/breakUpAriaJSON.js
git add scripts/roles.json src/etc
It should work with Node version 6.11.2 or later.
Utilities
Interface
These methods are available on each export from the module. The typing here in the documentation is pseudo-typed. Each export will have its own specific types for each method signature.
{|
entries: () => Array<$Item>,
get: (key: $Key) => ?$Value,
has: (key: $Key) => boolean,
keys: () => Array<$Key>,
values: () => Array<$Value>,
|};
Roles
import { roles } from 'aria-query';
A map of role names to the role definition. For example:
let alertRole = roles.get('alert');
Elements to Roles
import { elementRoles } from 'aria-query';
HTML Elements with inherent roles are mapped to those roles. In the case of an element like <input>
, the element often requires a type
attribute to map to an ARIA role.
[
[ '{"name": "article"}', [ 'article' ] ],
[ '{"name": "button"}', [ 'button' ] ],
[ '{"name": "td"}', [ 'cell', 'gridcell' ] ],
[ '{"name": "input", "attributes": [ {"name": "type", "value": "checkbox"}] }', [ 'checkbox' ] ],
[ '{"name": "th"}', [ 'columnheader' ] ],
[ '{"name": "select"}', [ 'combobox', 'listbox' ] ],
[ '{"name": "menuitem"}', [ 'command', 'menuitem' ] ],
[ '{"name": "dd"}', [ 'definition' ] ],
[ '{"name": "figure"}', [ 'figure' ] ],
[ '{"name": "form"}', [ 'form' ] ],
[ '{"name": "table"}', [ 'grid', 'table' ] ],
[ '{"name": "fieldset"}', [ 'group' ] ],
[ '{"name": "h1"}', [ 'heading' ] ],
[ '{"name": "h2"}', [ 'heading' ] ],
[ '{"name": "h3"}', [ 'heading' ] ],
[ '{"name": "h4"}', [ 'heading' ] ],
[ '{"name": "h5"}', [ 'heading' ] ],
[ '{"name": "h6"}', [ 'heading' ] ],
[ '{"name": "img"}', [ 'img' ] ],
[ '{"name": "a"}', [ 'link' ] ],
[ '{"name": "link"}', [ 'link' ] ],
[ '{"name": "ol"}', [ 'list' ] ],
[ '{"name": "ul"}', [ 'list' ] ],
[ '{"name": "li"}', [ 'listitem' ] ],
[ '{"name": "nav"}', [ 'navigation' ] ],
[ '{"name": "option"}', [ 'option' ] ],
[ '{"name": "input", "attributes": [ {"name": "type", "value": "radio"}] }', [ 'radio' ] ],
[ '{"name": "frame"}', [ 'region' ] ],
[ '{"name": "rel"}', [ 'roletype' ] ],
[ '{"name": "tr"}', [ 'row' ] ],
[ '{"name": "tbody"}', [ 'rowgroup' ] ],
[ '{"name": "tfoot"}', [ 'rowgroup' ] ],
[ '{"name": "thead"}', [ 'rowgroup' ] ],
[ '{"name": "th", "attributes": [ {"name": "scope", "value": "row"}] }', [ 'rowheader' ] ],
[ '{"name": "input", "attributes": [ {"name": "type", "value": "search"}] }', [ 'searchbox' ] ],
[ '{"name": "hr"}', [ 'separator' ] ],
[ '{"name": "dt"}', [ 'term' ] ],
[ '{"name": "dfn"}', [ 'term' ] ],
[ '{"name": "textarea"}', [ 'textbox' ] ],
[ '{"name": "input", "attributes": [ {"name": "type", "value": "text"}] }', [ 'textbox' ] ],
]
The map of elements to roles is keyed by an HTML concept. An HTML concept corresponds to the baseConcepts
and relatedConcepts
of an ARIA role. Concepts exist in the context of a module
: HTML, XForms, Dublin Core, for example. The concept representation is an object literal with a name property (the element name) and an optional attributes array.
The roles are provided in a Set.
Role to element
import { roleElements } from 'aria-query';
ARIA roles are mapped to the HTML Elements with the same inherent role. Some roles, such as columnheader
are only mapped to an HTML element that expresses specific attributes. In the case of <input>
, the element often requires a type
attribute to map to an ARIA role.
[
[ 'article', [ {"name": "article"} ] ],
[ 'button', [ {"name": "button"} ] ],
[ 'cell', [ {"name": "td"} ] ],
[ 'checkbox', [ {"name": "input", "attributes": [ {"name": "type", "value": "checkbox"}] } ] ],
[ 'columnheader', [ {"name": "th"} ] ],
[ 'combobox', [ {"name": "select"} ] ],
[ 'command', [ {"name": "menuitem"} ] ],
[ 'definition', [ {"name": "dd"}', '{"name": "dfn"} ] ],
[ 'figure', [ {"name": "figure"} ] ],
[ 'form', [ {"name": "form"} ] ],
[ 'grid', [ {"name": "table"} ] ],
[ 'gridcell', [ {"name": "td"} ] ],
[ 'group', [ {"name": "fieldset"} ] ],
[ 'heading', [ {"name": "h1"}', '{"name": "h2"}', '{"name": "h3"}', '{"name": "h4"}', '{"name": "h5"}', '{"name": "h6"} ] ],
[ 'img', [ {"name": "img"} ] ],
[ 'link', [ {"name": "a"}', '{"name": "link"} ] ],
[ 'list', [ {"name": "ol"}', '{"name": "ul"} ] ],
[ 'listbox', [ {"name": "select"} ] ],
[ 'listitem', [ {"name": "li"} ] ],
[ 'menuitem', [ {"name": "menuitem"} ] ],
[ 'navigation', [ {"name": "nav"} ] ],
[ 'option', [ {"name": "option"} ] ],
[ 'radio', [ {"name": "input", "attributes": [ {"name": "type", "value": "radio"}] } ] ],
[ 'region', [ {"name": "frame"} ] ],
[ 'roletype', [ {"name": "rel"} ] ],
[ 'row', [ {"name": "tr"} ] ],
[ 'rowgroup', [ {"name": "tbody"}', '{"name": "tfoot"}', '{"name": "thead"} ] ],
[ 'rowheader', [ {"name": "th", "attributes": [ {"name": "scope", "value": "row"}] }, {"name": "th", "attributes": [ {"name": "scope", "value": "rowgroup"}] } ] ],
[ 'searchbox', [ {"name": "input", "attributes": [ {"name": "type", "value": "search"}] } ] ],
[ 'separator', [ {"name": "hr"} ] ],
[ 'table', [ {"name": "table"} ] ],
[ 'term', [ {"name": "dt"} ] ],
[ 'textbox', [ {"name": "textarea"}', '{"name": "input", "attributes": [ {"name": "type", "value": "text"}] } ] ],
]
License
Copyright (c) 2021 A11yance