Back to Learn
Pulseaccessibility

No Deprecated ARIA Roles

What This Audit Checks

This audit flags elements that use ARIA roles which have been deprecated in the WAI-ARIA specification. Deprecated roles are no longer recommended and may lose assistive technology support at any time.

Why It Matters

Assistive technologies gradually drop support for deprecated roles. Continuing to use them means your interface will silently break for screen reader users as browsers and AT vendors update their implementations.

How to Fix It

  • Replace deprecated roles with their modern equivalents. For example, role="directory" is deprecated -- use role="list" instead.
  • Use native HTML elements wherever possible. Native semantics are always more reliable than ARIA overlays.
  • Check the WAI-ARIA changelog when upgrading to identify any newly deprecated roles.
<!-- Bad: deprecated role -->
<div role="directory">...</div>

<!-- Good: use the modern equivalent -->
<ul role="list">...</ul>

How Pulse Tracks This

Pulse flags this audit in your Lighthouse accessibility score. When the audit fails, Pulse shows which elements triggered it so you can fix them directly.

Resources