Do not override nav element semantics. (Deprecated)

Rule ID Role 6
Definition Overriding a nav element's default role of navigation landmark must only be done in special cases. NOTE: Deprecated in favor of HTML 3 a more general rule on role restrictions based on ARIA in HTML specification.
Purpose
  • A nav element has role restrictions as part of its definition in the W3C HTML5 Specification to help ensure the nav element semantics of identifying navigation landmark content.
  • A nav element should only use role="presentation" if the content of the nav element is not being used to identify navigation landmark content (e.g. repairing poor page semantics).
Required No for HTML4 Legacy Techniques ruleset mapping
WCAG Success Criteria

1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A, Primary Success Criterion)

Other Related Success Criterion:

Rule Category Styling/Content
Scope Element
Target Resources nav element
  • nav
Techniques
  • The nav element with no role value by default defines a navigation landmark, but the role="navigation" is allowed to support legacy pages.
  • If the nav element does not identify a navigation landmark content use a different element that does identify the semantics of content.
  • In rare cases role="presentation" can be used when the nav element does not represent the website or page navigation links on the page (e.g. repairing poor page semantics).
  • Any other role values are not allowed on nav elements.
Informational Links