WAI-ARIA: Role=Caption

Visible content that names, and may also describe, a figure, table, grid, or treegrid.

Description

Visible content that names, and may also describe, a figure, table, grid, or treegrid.

When using caption authors SHOULD ensure:

• The caption is a direct child of a figure, table, grid, or treegrid.
• The caption is the first child of a table, grid, or treegrid.
• The caption is the first or last child of a figure.

Authors SHOULD set aria-labelledby on the parent figure, table, grid, or treegrid to reference the element with role caption. However, if a caption contains content that serves as both a name and description for its parent, authors MAY instead set aria-labelledby to reference an element within the caption that contains a concise name, and set aria-describedby to reference an element within the caption that contains the descriptive content.

Role=Caption Example

<div role="table" aria-labelledby="name" aria-describedby="desc">
   <div role="caption">
     <div id="name">Contest Entrants</div>
     <div id="desc">
       This table shows the total number of entrants (500) the
       contest accepted over the past four weeks.
     </div>
   </div>
   <!-- ... -->

Characteristics

Superclass Role

section

Related Concepts

• <caption> in [HTML]
• <figcaption> in [HTML]

Required Context Role

• figure
• table
• grid
• treegrid

Inherited States and Properties

• aria-atomic
• aria-busy (state)
• aria-controls
• aria-current (state)
• aria-describedby
• aria-details
• aria-disabled (state)
• aria-dropeffect
• aria-errormessage
• aria-flowto
• aria-grabbed (state)
• aria-haspopup
• aria-hidden (state)
• aria-invalid (state)
• aria-keyshortcuts
• aria-live
• aria-owns
• aria-relevant
• aria-roledescription

Prohibited States and Properties

• aria-label
• aria-labelledby

Semantic HTML

The HTML alternative for role=”caption” is the <caption> tag.

Reference

• WAI-ARIA 1.2 Specification
  Refer to the notes from the WAI-ARIA 1.2 specification for more information on role=caption.