htmlaccessibilityrequiredwai-ariahtml-input

When to use the required attribute vs the aria-required attribute for input elements?

I'm trying to make a form accessible. Should I make my inputs have both required and aria-required attributes, or just one?

<label for="textbox1">Input</label>
<input id="textbox1" type="text" name="Text Box" required>

Or like this?

<label for="textbox1">Input</label>
<input id="textbox1" type="text" name="Text Box" aria-required="true">

Or like this?

<label for="textbox1">Input</label>
<input id="textbox1" type="text" name="Text Box" aria-required="true" required>

The article Accessible HTML5 Forms – Required Inputs claims it is best to implement both.

EDIT: The above linked site is no longer active.

Solution

  • When John Foliot wrote that article in 2012 it was very much true. You needed both.

    Today that is no longer the case. I can take your example, put it in a CodePen, and check it in JAWS and NVDA (sorry, no VoiceOver today):

    <label for="textbox1">Input</label>
<input id="textbox1" type="text" name="Text Box" required>

    You will be happy to know that both NVDA and JAWS announce the field as required.

    In short, you do not need aria-required any longer. Just use required.

    You can read a bit more about the ARIA attributes you can dump in this article by Steve Faulkner (one of the editors of the ARIA spec) from 2015: http://html5doctor.com/on-html-belts-and-aria-braces/