ariaactivedescendantitem3

ariaactivedescendantitem3 is a hypothetical identifier used in explanations of ARIA’s active descendant mechanism. It refers to a DOM element whose id is ariaactivedescendantitem3 and that can be designated as the active descendant within a composite widget. In practice, ariaactivedescendantitem3 would be the value assigned to the aria-activedescendant attribute of a container element, signaling to assistive technologies that this specific child element is currently active.

Within an interactive widget such as a listbox, menu, combobox, or grid, the aria-activedescendant attribute allows the widget to indicate which item is active without moving focus to that item. The element with id ariaactivedescendantitem3 would typically correspond to the third item in the widget, though the exact mapping depends on the document structure. This approach helps screen readers convey the active state while the focus remains on the container, enabling smoother keyboard navigation and reduced focus shifting.

Implementation considerations include ensuring the active descendant element exists within the widget, has a stable id, and reflects its active state visually. When navigation occurs (for example, via arrow keys), developers should update aria-activedescendant to the id of the new active item. It is also important to maintain unique IDs and to keep focus handling parallel with the visual and programmatic state of the widget.

See also ARIA, aria-activedescendant, listbox, menu, combobox.