Level A · WCAG 2.0
4.1.2 Name, Role, Value
Every control exposes a name, a role and its current state to assistive technology.
Partly automated Some failures are detectable, others need judgement.
How it fails in practice
A div with a click handler acting as a button and announced as nothing. A custom checkbox that never reports whether it is checked.
How to fix it
Use native elements first. Where you cannot, implement the full ARIA pattern — role, name, states and keyboard behaviour together. Half a pattern is worse than none.
At a glance
- Level
- Level A — the minimum. Failing one of these usually makes something impossible rather than merely hard.
- Principle
- Robust
- Guideline
- 4.1 Compatible
- Added in
- WCAG 2.0
- EN 301 549
- 9.4.1.2
- Automated check
- Partly automated
Partly automated
How far an automated check gets
A tool finds some failures here and cannot see the rest. A clean automated result means the checks that exist found nothing — not that the criterion is met. This is the gap that makes a green scan look like an accessible site, and it is where our agents and a human reviewer do the remaining work.
A missing name or an invalid role is found automatically. Whether the role describes what the control really does is a judgement.
Related criteria
Other criteria under the same guideline.
Find out which criteria your site fails
We scan up to 100 pages against WCAG 2.2 AA, run the agent protocol on one key journey and send you the report — free, once, no strings.