ARIA

v5 adds ARIA 1.3 and makes it the default (v4 used 1.2). The v4 wai-aria umbrella is replaced by 21 independent rules.

What changed

Change	Who is affected
Default ARIA version "1.3"	Everyone
generic role is transparent in 1.3	Content that wraps required owned roles in a <div> / <span>
<aside> conditional implicit role in 1.3	Nested <aside>
image / img role synonym in 1.3	role="image" on elements that permit img
"No role permitted" is strict	Explicit role matching the implicit role
wai-aria removed as a rule name	Any config that named wai-aria

Shared version: Config. Catalog: Renames and splits.

ARIA version

Default is "1.3". To keep 1.2:

{
  "ruleCommonSettings": {
    "ariaVersion": "1.2"
  }
}

Only require-accessible-name and no-refer-to-non-existent-id still accept per-rule options.ariaVersion. The 21 wai-aria successors have no options object. v4 wai-aria options.version is dropped; use ruleCommonSettings.ariaVersion.

Generic role transparency (ARIA 1.3)

Elements with implicit or explicit generic (bare <div> / <span>) are skipped when walking required parent/owned-child relationships.

<!-- ARIA 1.2: fails list → listitem. ARIA 1.3: passes. -->
<ul>
  <div>
    <li>item</li>
  </div>
</ul>

Behavior	1.1 / 1.2	1.3
generic transparent for child roles	No	Yes
generic transparent for parent role	No	Yes
presentation / none transparent for child roles	Yes	Yes
presentation / none transparent for parent role	Yes	Yes

<aside> conditional role (ARIA 1.3)

• Not a descendant of <article>, <aside>, <blockquote>, <details>, <dialog>, <fieldset>, <figure>, <nav>, <section>, or <td> → complementary
• Descendant of one of those → generic, unless the <aside> has an accessible name, in which case it stays complementary

no-nested-top-level-landmark does not treat complementary as a top-level landmark: a selector cannot tell a demoted <aside> from a real one.

image / img synonym (ARIA 1.3)

When permitted roles include img, image is accepted (<embed>, <iframe>). <img> already has implicit img.

<embed src="chart.svg" role="image" />

"No role permitted" is strict

When ARIA in HTML says no role is permitted, v5 forbids any explicit role, including a value equal to the implicit role. v4 allowed that match.

<img src="spacer.png" alt="" role="presentation" /> <img src="spacer.png" alt="" role="none" />

Remove the attribute. The implicit role from HTML-AAM still applies. Background: issue #3641.

wai-aria umbrella

In v4, wai-aria ran many checks, some gated by boolean options.

wai-aria: true still works until v6: a deprecation warning, then expansion to all 21 rules with the same severity/reason. Option toggles are not routed. To turn a check off, disable that rule.

Map of v4 options → v5 rules

v4 option	v4 default	v5 rule
checkingValue	true	no-invalid-aria-prop-value
checkingDeprecatedRole	true	no-deprecated-role
checkingDeprecatedProps	true	no-deprecated-aria-prop
permittedAriaRoles	true	permitted-roles
checkingRequiredOwnedElements	true	require-owned-elements
checkingPresentationalChildren	false	no-aria-on-presentational-children
checkingInteractionInHidden	false	no-focusable-in-aria-hidden
disallowSetImplicitRole	true	no-redundant-role
disallowSetImplicitProps	true	no-redundant-aria-prop and no-contradictory-aria-prop
disallowDefaultValue	false	no-default-aria-value
version	"1.2"	ruleCommonSettings.ariaVersion

v4 always ran (no option): #ARIAAttrs: false → no-aria-on-unsupported-element; unknown/abstract role; required ARIA properties; disallowed properties (no-prohibited-naming, element-supports-aria-prop, role-supports-aria-prop); global properties without a role → aria-prop-requires-role.

v4 wai-aria did not implement require-parent-role or tab-requires-tabpanel. The alias and markuplint:a11y still enable them.

Extra reports vs v4 defaults

Because toggles are dropped, wai-aria: true (and markuplint:a11y) now also run:

• no-aria-on-presentational-children (was default off)
• no-focusable-in-aria-hidden (was default off)
• no-default-aria-value (was default off)
• require-parent-role (new)
• tab-requires-tabpanel (new)

Disable individually, for example:

{
  "rules": {
    "no-aria-on-presentational-children": false,
    "no-focusable-in-aria-hidden": false,
    "no-default-aria-value": false,
    "require-parent-role": false,
    "tab-requires-tabpanel": false
  }
}

markuplint:a11y names these as a11y/wai-aria/* groups, so you can also disable a11y/wai-aria/presentational-children and the other group names.

landmark-roles and required-h1 splits are in Renames and splits, not in the wai-aria alias.

Terminology (custom rule authors)

ARIA 1.3 renames on ARIARole (old names remain @deprecated aliases):

ARIA 1.3	Former
requiredAccessibilityParentRole	requiredContextRole
allowedAccessibilityChildRoles	requiredOwnedElements