aria-hidden true read by JAWS

Question

Using jQuery add role alert in #div1, read #div2 content even if it is hidden for JAWS.

<div id="div1">
     some content 
    <div id="div2" aria-hidden="true">
           some content 2 for div
    </div>
</div>  

Answer 1

Currently, JAWS does not support aria-hidden state in both Internet Explorer and Firefox.

You can use role="presentation" though it is not recommended.

See also:

• Official JAWS aria support list

• Donald Evans's blog

Answer 2

Support for the aria-hidden attribute was added to JAWS in their 13.0.718 update (February 2012). See the full change log below:

http://www.freedomscientific.com/downloads/jaws/JAWS13-previous-enhancements.asp.

JAWS now recognizes the aria-hidden attribute so that text that is supposed to be hidden is no longer announced.

It seems to work for me, but I've noticed that tabbable content wrapped in a "hidden" container can still be navigated to and read by JAWS.