ARIA: menuitemcheckbox role
===========================

A `menuitemcheckbox` is a `menuitem` with a checkable state whose possible values are `true`, `false`, or `mixed`.

Description
-----------

The items in menu and menubars are menu items. There are three types of menu items: `menuitem`, `menuitemradio`, and `menuitemcheckbox`.

These three elements can only be contained in, or owned by, an element with role `menu` or `menubar`, optionally nested within a grouping element with role of `group`. Being nested or otherwise owned (see `aria-owns`) in a `menu` or `menubar` identifies the menu items as being related widgets.

Menu items, including `menuitemcheckbox` elements, may be grouped within `group` elements or separated by elements with the `separator` role or other equivalent native role such as `<fieldset>` and `<hr>`.

Menu items containing the role of `menuitemcheckbox` must include the `aria-checked` attribute to expose the checkbox's state to assistive technology, unless using `<input type="checkbox">`, in which case the 'checked' attribute should be used.

Similar to the 'checked' attribute of `<input>`s of type `checkbox`, the `aria-checked` attribute of a `menuitemcheckbox` indicates whether the menu item is checked (`true`), unchecked (`false`), or represents a sub-level menu of other menu items that have a mixture of checked and unchecked values (`mixed`). The `mixed` value is similar to the checkbox's `indeterminate` attribute, which gives the appearance of a third, neither checked nor unchecked, state. If missing, the value defaults to `false`.

An accessible name is required. Ideally, the accessible name should come from an associated `<label>` element if using `<input type="checkbox">` or visible, descendant content. Realize if the label or descendant content is not sufficient and, preferably, `aria-labelledby` is used referencing non-descendant content or `aria-label` is used, these two ARIA properties will hide other descendant content from assistive technologies.

If all elements in the set are not present in the DOM include the `aria-setsize` and `aria-posinset` properties. When specifying `aria-setsize` and `aria-posinset` on a `menuitemcheckbox`, set the value with respect to the total number of items in the menu, excluding any separators.

The `menuitemcheckbox` element can have phrasing content, but can not have interactive content as descendants and no descendants with a `tabindex` attribute specified.

### All descendants are presentational

There are some types of user interface components that, when represented in a platform accessibility API, can only contain text. Accessibility APIs do not have a way of representing semantic elements contained in a `menuitemcheckbox`. To deal with this limitation, browsers, automatically apply role `presentation` to all descendant elements of any `menuitemcheckbox` element as it is a role that does not support semantic children.

For example, consider the following `menuitemcheckbox` element, which contains a heading.


```html
<div role="menuitemcheckbox"><h6>Name of my checkbox</h6></li>
```


Because descendants of `menuitemcheckbox` are presentational, the following code is equivalent:


```html
<div role="menuitemcheckbox"><h6 role="presentation">Name of my checkbox</h6></li>
```


From the assistive technology user's perspective, the heading does not exist since the previous code snippets are equivalent to the following in the accessibility tree:


```html
<div role="menuitemcheckbox">Name of my checkbox</div>
```

### Associated WAI-ARIA roles, states, and properties

`menu` role

Widget that offers a list of common actions or functions the user can invoke.

`menubar` role

Similar to `menu` for a consistent set of frequently used commands remaining visible and usually presented horizontally.

`group` role

Container for a group of `menuitem` elements, including `menuitemcheckbox` elements within a `menu` or `menubar`.

`aria-checked` (Required)

Set to `true`, `false`, or `mixed`, it indicates the current "checked" state of the menuitemcheckbox

### Keyboard interactions

When a `menu` opens, or when a `menubar` receives focus, keyboard focus is placed on the first item. All items in both are focusable, including all `menuitemcheckbox` elements.

If the `menuitemcheckbox` is in a submenu in a `menubar` or a menu opened with a menu button, the following keyboard interactions must be programmed in. :

`Enter`

Toggles the `aria-checked` state of the `menuitemcheckbox` and closes the menu.

`Space`

Toggles the `aria-checked` state of the `menuitemcheckbox`. Does not close the menu.

`Escape`

Closes menu. In menubar, moves focus to parent menubar item.

`Right Arrow`

Closes submenu. In menubar, moves focus to next item in the menubar, opening any submenu if there is one.

`Left Arrow`

Closes menu. In menubar, moves focus to previous item in the menubar, opening any submenu if there is one.

`Down Arrow`

Moves focus to the next item in the menu. If focus is on the last item, moves focus to the first item.

`Up Arrow`

Moves focus to previous item in the menu. If focus is on the first item, moves focus to the last item.

`Home`

Moves focus to the first item in the menu.

`End`

Moves focus to the last item in the menu.

`Character`

Moves focus to the next item having a name that starts with the typed character. If none of the items have a name starting with the typed character, focus does not move.

### Required JavaScript

#### Required event handlers

`onclick`

Handle mouse clicks on both the checkbox and the associated label that will change the state of the checkbox by changing the value of the `aria-checked` attribute and the appearance of the checkbox so it appears checked or unchecked to the sighted user

`onKeyDown`

Handle the case where the user presses the `Space` key to change the state of the checkbox by changing the value of the `aria-checked` attribute and the appearance of the checkbox so it appears checked or unchecked to the sighted user. Also handles all keys listed in the keyboard navigation section above.

Examples
--------


```html
<li role="menuitemcheckbox" tabindex="-1" aria-checked="false">Purple</li>
```


The `tabindex="-1"` makes the `menuitemcheckbox` focusable but not part of the page tab sequence. Had we included `aria-checked="true"` it would have indicated that the `menuitemcheckbox` was checked, and we would have visually styled the selected state to look checked using the attribute selector `[role='menuitemcheckbox'][aria-checked='true']`. Instead, the presence of `aria-checked="false"` indicates to assistive technologies that the `menuitemcheckbox` is checkable but not currently checked. The accessible name "purple" comes from the contents.

The visual appearance of the selected state is a checked checkbox which we can create using generated content, making it visible and the same color as the content by synchronizing with the `aria-checked` value using CSS attribute selectors and inheriting the color.


```css
[role="menuitemcheckbox"]::before {
  display: inline-block;
  content: "";
  color: transparent;
  width: 1em;
  text-align: center;
  outline: 1px solid;
  margin-inline-end: 2px;
  font-family: sans-serif;
}
[role="menuitemcheckbox"][aria-checked="true"]::before {
  color: inherit;
  content: "X";
}
```

### Prefer HTML

The first rule of ARIA is: if a native HTML element or attribute has the semantics and behavior you require, use it instead of re-purposing an element and adding an ARIA role, state or property to make it accessible. As such, it is recommended to use the native HTML checkbox form control instead of recreating a checkbox's functionality with JavaScript and ARIA.

Specifications
--------------

| Specification |
| --- |
| Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) # menuitemcheckbox |
| Unknown specification  |

See Also
--------

* `menuitemradio` role
* `checkbox` role
* `<input type="checkbox">`