Names, roles & states

An Outdated ARIA Role Is Used

The page uses a role that has been retired from ARIA, so screen readers may ignore it or handle it differently, and people can't tell what the content is.

aria-deprecated-roleWCAG 2.0Introduced in WCAG 2.0.Level AA — the minimum. Missing it blocks people outright.

Status: MinorMinor — Cosmetic, or best practice.CurrentScanners run this rule today.
Owner: DevTest
Audit: AutomatedA scanner finds it, and a clean scan means it's fixed.

Why it matters

A role tells screen readers what something is, such as a list or a button. ARIA is the set of attributes that adds this extra meaning for assistive technology. Some old roles, like directory, doc-endnote and doc-biblioentry, have been retired.

Browsers and screen readers may drop support for retired roles at any time. Then the content loses its meaning, and people who can't see the screen don't know it's a list or how many items it holds.

Who it affects

Who it affects, and how much
Who	What they experience	Impact
Screen reader users	They may hear plain text with no hint it's a list, or a different role on each screen reader.	Partial impact
Low-vision users (magnification)	Affected only if they also use a screen reader.	Partial impact

Business & product impact

Business & product impact, with how much each claim weighs
Area	Why	Impact
Legal	It risks failing WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value at Level A. Complaints under Australia's Disability Discrimination Act point to WCAG 2.2 Level AA, and EN 301 549 applies in Europe.	Moderate impact
SEO	No real search benefit, so don't sell it as one.	Low impact
Brand trust	A small issue alone, but it signals code that hasn't kept up with standards.	Low impact
Cost to fix	Usually a quick swap to a current role or plain HTML. Fix it in the shared template.	High impact

Fixing it in code

A list of links using `directory`

Don't

<div role="directory">
  <a href="/a">Annual report</a>
  <a href="/b">Budget</a>
</div>

A screen reader says: “Varies: often just "Annual report, link" with no list”

<ul>
  <li><a href="/a">Annual report</a></li>
  <li><a href="/b">Budget</a></li>
</ul>

A screen reader says: “List, 2 items. Annual report, link”

A real HTML list is supported everywhere and never goes out of date.

Endnotes in a digital book

Don't

<section role="doc-endnotes">
  <div role="doc-endnote" id="n1">See chapter 2.</div>
</section>

A screen reader says: “Varies: the note may not be announced as part of a list”

<section role="doc-endnotes">
  <ol>
    <li id="n1">See chapter 2.</li>
  </ol>
</section>

A screen reader says: “Endnotes, list, 1 item. See chapter 2.”

doc-endnote is retired. Use ordinary list items inside the endnotes section.

Designer's handoff note

No visual change is needed. If you annotate designs, mark groups of links as "list", not "directory".

Quick test

Tool

Browser DevTools (opens in a new tab) (free in Chrome, Edge or Firefox)

Checklist

Step 1: Open the page and press F12.
Step 2: Press Ctrl F (⌘ F on Mac) in the Elements panel.
Step 3: Search for `role="directory"`, then `doc-endnote"` and `doc-biblioentry`.

Pass: No matches are found.
Fail: Any match is found.

What a green scan still misses

A scanner finds retired roles reliably. It can't tell whether your replacement fits the content, so check the new role makes sense.

Reference

Rule ID: aria-deprecated-role
Raised by: axe-core: “Deprecated ARIA roles must not be used”
WCAG: 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (opens in a new tab) · Level A · since WCAG 2.0
Other standards: EN 301 549 9.4.1.2 · RGAA 7.1.1
Read more: Deque University: aria-deprecated-role (opens in a new tab)
Last reviewed: 14 October 2026