HTML Guides for aria-activedescendant

The aria-activedescendant attribute tells assistive technologies which child element within a composite widget — such as a combobox, listbox, or autocomplete dropdown — is currently “active” or focused. Instead of moving actual DOM focus to each option, the parent element (like an input) retains focus while aria-activedescendant points to the visually highlighted option by referencing its id. This allows screen readers to announce the active option without disrupting keyboard interaction on the input.

When aria-activedescendant is set to an empty string (""), it creates an invalid state. The HTML and ARIA specifications require that any ID reference attribute either contains a valid, non-empty ID token or is omitted altogether. An empty string is not a valid ID, so the W3C validator flags this as an error: Bad value “” for attribute “aria-activedescendant” on element “input”: An ID must not be the empty string.

This problem commonly occurs in JavaScript-driven widgets where aria-activedescendant is cleared by setting it to "" when no option is highlighted — for example, when a dropdown closes or the user clears their selection. While the developer’s intent is correct (indicating that nothing is active), the implementation is wrong.

Why this matters

• Accessibility: Screen readers may behave unpredictably when encountering an empty ID reference. Some may silently ignore it, while others may announce errors or fail to convey widget state correctly.
• Standards compliance: The ARIA specification explicitly requires ID reference values to be non-empty strings that match an existing element’s id.
• Browser consistency: Browsers handle invalid ARIA attributes inconsistently, which can lead to different experiences across platforms and assistive technologies.

How to fix it

1. Remove the attribute when no descendant is active. Use removeAttribute('aria-activedescendant') in JavaScript instead of setting it to an empty string.
2. Set a valid ID when a descendant becomes active, pointing to the id of the currently highlighted or selected option.
3. Never render the attribute in HTML with an empty value. If your framework or templating engine conditionally renders attributes, ensure it omits the attribute entirely rather than outputting aria-activedescendant="".

Examples

Incorrect: empty string value

This triggers the W3C validation error because the attribute value is an empty string.

<input type="text" role="combobox" aria-activedescendant="" />

Correct: attribute omitted when no option is active

When nothing is active, simply leave the attribute off.

<input type="text" role="combobox" aria-expanded="false" />

Correct: valid ID reference when an option is active

When a user highlights an option, set aria-activedescendant to that option’s id.

<div role="combobox">
  <input
    type="text"
    role="combobox"
    aria-expanded="true"
    aria-controls="suggestions"
    aria-activedescendant="option2" />
  <ul id="suggestions" role="listbox">
    <li id="option1" role="option">Apple</li>
    <li id="option2" role="option" aria-selected="true">Banana</li>
    <li id="option3" role="option">Cherry</li>
  </ul>
</div>

Correct: managing the attribute dynamically with JavaScript

The key fix in JavaScript is using removeAttribute instead of setting the value to an empty string.

<div role="combobox">
  <input
    id="search"
    type="text"
    role="combobox"
    aria-expanded="true"
    aria-controls="results" />
  <ul id="results" role="listbox">
    <li id="result1" role="option">First result</li>
    <li id="result2" role="option">Second result</li>
  </ul>
</div>
<script>
  const input = document.getElementById('search');

  function setActiveOption(optionId) {
    if (optionId) {
      input.setAttribute('aria-activedescendant', optionId);
    } else {
      // Remove the attribute instead of setting it to ""
      input.removeAttribute('aria-activedescendant');
    }
  }
</script>

In summary, always ensure aria-activedescendant either points to a real, non-empty id or is removed from the element. Never set it to an empty string.