This translation has not been editorially reviewed yet. The German version is authoritative. Deutsche Fassung
Accessibility
What does name, role, value mean for a website?
Name, role, and value are the three pieces of information every control element on a website must report to assistive tools. The name says what the element is for ("Search"), the role says what it is (button, link, checkbox), the value says what state it's in (checked or empty). If one of these is missing, a blind visitor only hears "element" — and can't do anything with that. WCAG criterion 4.1.2 governs this.
Three pieces of information make an element operable
A screen reader doesn't see pixels — it reads out what the source code reports about each element. For a properly built button, it says: "Search, button". The visitor knows instantly what happens when they press Enter. For a checkbox, the value is added: "Subscribe to newsletter, checkbox, not checked". Problems arise with custom-built control elements: a clickable icon with no name gets announced as "graphic", a dropdown menu assembled with scripts and no role as meaningless text. The sighted visitor notices none of this — the element looks the same as always. For users of screen readers, voice control, and specialised keyboards, it's invisible or unusable. Robustness means: the technology behind it carries every assistive tool, not just the screen.
How the audit service checks name, role, and value
Our measurement engine checks this criterion largely automatically with axe-core in a real browser. Among other things, it checks: does every button and link carry an accessible name, are the additional attributes used for assistive tools valid and correctly combined, do custom-assigned roles match the rules. To rule out random findings, the check runs twice with an 800-millisecond gap — only findings that show up in both runs count. The label count from criterion 3.3.2 also feeds in: an input field with no linked label also has no accessible name and therefore also counts as a violation of 4.1.2. The report names every finding with the element and evidence.
Examples
Switch without name, role and condition
<div class="toggle on" onclick="umschalten()"></div><button type="button" role="switch" aria-checked="true" onclick="umschalten()">
Benachrichtigungen
</button>The read-out program says “Notifications, Switch, On”. When switching, aria-checked must be carried.
Symbol button without name
<button><svg>…</svg></button><button aria-label="Suche öffnen"><svg aria-hidden="true">…</svg></button>- Ask your agency to use the built-in building blocks for control elements — real buttons and links come with name, role, and value automatically.
- Give every icon-only button — magnifying glass, menu, cart — an invisible but technically stored name.
- Check custom-built elements like dropdown menus and toggles especially critically — that's where role and state are missing most often.
- Run an automated check after every major rebuild, since a single new script can silence many elements at once.
