Missing aria-details ID
Silktide checks every aria-details attribute on your pages and verifies that the element ID it points to actually exists. This attribute links an element to a fuller explanation elsewhere on the page, such as a chart linked to its underlying data table.
<!-- Problem: no element on the page has id="sales-table" -->
<img src="chart.png" alt="Sales by quarter" aria-details="sales-table">
Why this matters
The aria-details attribute promises
users a
richer description they can navigate to - the full data behind a chart, the
terms behind a summary. When the reference is broken, a
announces that details
exist but cannot take the user anywhere, which is more confusing than
offering no details at all.
How to fix it
- Make the attribute reference the
idof a real element on the same page, preferably one that is visible so every user can reach it. - If the detailed content was removed, remove the
aria-detailsattribute with it. - For a short text description rather than rich content, consider
aria-describedbyinstead, which reads the text directly.
How Silktide tests this
- Find every element on the page with an
aria-detailsattribute. - Check the ID it references against the element IDs present on the page.
- Report each reference that matches no element.
Troubleshooting
This check reports nothing even though I expect findings
ARIA testing can be turned off per website. Check the advanced settings for the website.