The HTML aria-owns attribute
The aria-owns attribute tells assistive technology that the current element is the parent of other elements (referenced by id) that are not its DOM children. Use it only when you genuinely cannot nest the elements in the DOM.
Overview
The aria-owns attribute defines a parent/child relationship between elements that the DOM structure does not.
It is a relationship property: it wires elements together for assistive technology by referencing their ids. The element(s) you point at must exist in the DOM with matching ids, and the relationship is exposed only to assistive technology — it has no visual effect, so you still style and lay out the page normally.
Like all ARIA, aria-owns changes only the accessibility tree — what assistive technology perceives — never the element's behavior or appearance. The first rule of ARIA applies: if a native HTML element or attribute conveys this, use that instead, and only reach for ARIA when nothing native fits.
Syntax
<div role="listbox" aria-owns="opt1 opt2"> … </div>Values
| Value |
|---|
| A space-separated list of element id values. |
Example
<ul role="listbox" aria-owns="extra-option"> … </ul>
<li id="extra-option" role="option">Rendered elsewhere</li>Best practices
- Follow the first rule of ARIA — use a native HTML element or attribute that conveys this where one exists, rather than adding ARIA.
- Reference real elements — every target
idmust exist in the DOM. - Remember the relationship is conveyed only to assistive technology and has no visual effect.
- Prefer native associations (a <label>'s
for, a <table>'s structure) where they exist.
Frequently asked questions
What does aria-owns do?
How does this attribute reference another element?
id. The element(s) you point at must exist in the DOM with matching ids.