• Success Criterion 4.1.2
  • Conformance level A

State Attribute Present on an Element That Never Actually Changes

4.1.2 — Name, Role, Value

Scenario

Setting

A real-estate marketplace's listing page

What’s wrong

State attributes on elements that never change state (aria-expanded (the open/closed state in code) on a plain link) announcing false expandability.

Example 

<a href="/listings/4471/description" aria-expanded="false">View full description</a>
<!-- a normal navigation link, copied from an accordion template, so it announces false
     expand and collapse behavior it never performs -->

Why it matters

A screen reader user hears "collapsed, link" and expects Enter to expand content in place, but gets a whole new page instead.

How to test

Inspect a control's aria state attributes: if a state attribute exists on an element that has no actual state to report (e.g., aria-expanded on a plain link), it fails.

How to fix

Remove aria-expanded, and any other state attribute, from elements that don't actually toggle a state.

<a href="/listings/4471/description">View full description</a>

Outcome

A house hunter follows the link to the full description with no confusing state announcement.

Who is affected

Screen reader users browsing listings get a false expectation of in-page expansion from a link that only navigates.

Learn more

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