[EuiStepsHorizontal][A11y] Prevent screen reader duplication by mgadewoll · Pull Request #9574 · elastic/eui

mgadewoll · 2026-04-08T10:25:26Z

Summary

This PR updates EuiStepsHorizontal to fix duplicate output for screen readers.
The output for screen readers previously read:

title attribute (though this is not consistently read across screen readers)
DOM content
- visible label
- hidden screen reader text OR icon label (same as title)

Instead of using the title attribute we can use aria-label instead which results in only the aria-label being read for the button element.

⚠️ This means we won't have the browser "tooltip" on hover but considering the cons/pros of that attribute and that we're generally considering to remove it across EUI, this should be reasonable to do. The steps themselves provide all information, the title isn't actually adding further benefit.

API Changes

🟢 No API changes

Screenshots

screen reader output

screen reader	Before	After
NVDA / Chrome
JAWS / Chrome

video

screen reader	Before	After
NVDA / Chrome	Screen.Recording.2026-04-08.at.12.09.49.mov	Screen.Recording.2026-04-08.at.12.09.23.mov
JAWS / Chrome	Screen.Recording.2026-04-08.at.12.04.24.mov	Screen.Recording.2026-04-08.at.12.06.28.mov
VoiceOver / Safari	Screen.Recording.2026-04-08.at.12.19.22.mov	Screen.Recording.2026-04-08.at.12.18.55.mov

Impact Assessment

Note: Most PRs should be tested in Kibana to help gauge their Impact before merging.

🔴 Breaking changes — What will break? How many usages in Kibana/Cloud UI are impacted?
💅 Visual changes — May impact style overrides; could require visual testing. Explain and estimate impact.
🧪 Test impact — May break functional or snapshot tests (e.g., HTML structure, class names, default values).
🔧 Hard to integrate — If changes require substantial updates to Kibana, please stage the changes and link them here.

Impact level: 🟢 Low - Due to DOM changes, snapshots might need updating.

Release Readiness

Documentation: {link to docs page(s)}
Figma: {link to Figma or issue}
Migration guide: {steps or link, for breaking/visual changes or deprecations}
Adoption plan (new features): {link to issue/doc or outline who will integrate this and where}

QA instructions for reviewer

verify that navigating the component in screen readers (JAWS, NVDA, VO) doesn't result in duplication anymore
verify there is no unexpected visual/functional regression with production

Checklist before marking Ready for Review

Filled out all sections above
QA: Tested light/dark modes, high contrast, mobile, Chrome/Safari/Edge/Firefox, keyboard-only, screen reader
QA: Tested in CodeSandbox and Kibana
QA: Tested docs changes
Tests: Added/updated Jest, Cypress, and VRT
Changelog: Added changelog entry
Breaking changes: Added breaking change label (if applicable)

Reviewer checklist

Approved Impact Assessment — Acceptable to merge given the consumer impact.
Approved Release Readiness — Docs, Figma, and migration info are sufficient to ship.

- this prevents reading out duplicate text content

Copilot

Pull request overview

This PR improves EuiStepsHorizontal / EuiStepHorizontal screen reader output by replacing the title attribute with aria-label to prevent duplicate announcements.

Changes:

Replaced the title attribute on EuiStepHorizontal’s <button> with aria-label.
Updated Jest snapshots to reflect the new attribute output.
Added an upcoming changelog entry documenting the accessibility fix.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 4 out of 4 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

File	Description
packages/eui/src/components/steps/step_horizontal.tsx	Switches from `title` to `aria-label` on the step button to prevent duplicate SR output
packages/eui/src/components/steps/snapshots/steps_horizontal.test.tsx.snap	Snapshot updates for `EuiStepsHorizontal` button attributes
packages/eui/src/components/steps/snapshots/step_horizontal.test.tsx.snap	Snapshot updates for `EuiStepHorizontal` button attributes
packages/eui/changelogs/upcoming/9574.md	Changelog entry for the accessibility improvement

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Copilot · 2026-04-08T11:36:44Z

      aria-disabled={status === 'disabled' ? true : undefined}
      className={classes}
-      title={titleAttr}
+      aria-label={titleAttr}
      onClick={onStepClick}
      disabled={disabled}


aria-disabled is set based on status === 'disabled', but the actual disabled behavior is controlled only by the disabled prop (disabled={disabled} and onStepClick only guards on disabled). This allows a status="disabled" step to still be clickable/activatable despite being announced as disabled. Consider using a single computed boolean (e.g., isDisabled = disabled || status === 'disabled') for aria-disabled, the disabled attribute, and the click guard so behavior matches the a11y state.

It's not due to the changes in this PR. There might be benefit to having the button focusable if disabled, so I wouldn't change the aria-disabled vs disabled behavior here at this point. What we can do though is guard the onClick on both to prevent it from being being fired if only status === 'disabled' is passed without disabled.

Updated in 0fa990a

- additionally renames the map to fit aria-label usage better

weronikaolejniczak

Tested with NVDA/Chrome, JAWS/Chrome and VO/Safari. There's no duplication ✅

2 doubts (one in a separate comment):

❓ I'm all for removing the title attr but I'm wondering if we should replace it with an EuiToolTip or not... What do you think?

mgadewoll · 2026-04-21T07:43:09Z

❓ I'm all for removing the title attr but I'm wondering if we should replace it with an EuiToolTip or not... What do you think?

@weronikaolejniczak I'm not sure if it has too much value. 🤔 Yes, the title was a text representation of the steps but it didn't have any other function (no alternative for truncation etc). The text alternative for assistive technologies is the aria-label now.
I'm leaning towards "no" here as the title was mouse only anyway. If we add a tooltip it's actually changing the behavior more because we're adding it for keyboard as well. Imho, it would rather be a new feature then, which we could add if the need arises.

weronikaolejniczak

Thanks for addressing my doubts, Lene! I agree the tooltip would be an enhancement, let's leave it for now. And thanks for updating the changelog!

🟢

elasticmachine · 2026-04-24T09:26:59Z

💚 Build Succeeded

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💚 Build #3271 succeeded c94677e
💚 Build #3163 succeeded 0fa990a
💚 Build #3162 succeeded 018c215

cc @mgadewoll

elasticmachine · 2026-04-24T09:43:36Z

💚 Build Succeeded

Buildkite Build
Commit: 36d1937

History

💚 Build #6287 succeeded c94677e
💚 Build #6196 succeeded 0fa990a
💚 Build #6195 succeeded 018c215

cc @mgadewoll

## Dependency updates - `@elastic/eui` - v114.2.0 ⏩ v114.3.0 --- ## Package updates ## [`v114.3.0`](https://github.com/elastic/eui/releases/v114.3.0) - Updated `productDashboard` icon. ([#9607](elastic/eui#9607)) - Updated `EuiStepsHorizontal` to prevent steps being clickable when `status="disabled"` ([#9574](elastic/eui#9574)) **Bug fixes** - Fixed broken SVG for `chartPie` icon. ([#9607](elastic/eui#9607)) - Fixed a bug in `EuiDataGrid` that caused the scroll position to reset when using middle mouse button to scroll the container. ([#9613](elastic/eui#9613)) - Fixed `EuiFlyout` to compare `pushMinBreakpoint` against the container's width, instead of the viewport width, when the `container` prop is provided. This ensures app-scoped flyouts switch between push and overlay modes based on the space actually available inside their container. ([#9592](elastic/eui#9592)) **Accessibility** - Fixed duplicate screen reader output for `EuiStepsHorizontal` ([#9574](elastic/eui#9574))

mgadewoll added 2 commits April 8, 2026 12:11

refactor: use aria-label instead of title attribute on EuiStepHorizontal

cdb7a2a

- this prevents reading out duplicate text content

test: update snapshots

5edcf0b

mgadewoll self-assigned this Apr 8, 2026

chore: add changelog

018c215

mgadewoll added the accessibility label Apr 8, 2026

mgadewoll marked this pull request as ready for review April 8, 2026 11:30

mgadewoll requested a review from a team as a code owner April 8, 2026 11:30

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings April 8, 2026 11:30

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of mgadewoll April 8, 2026 11:31 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Apr 8, 2026

View reviewed changes

mgadewoll added 2 commits April 8, 2026 14:25

refactor: ensure custom aria-label and aria-labelledby can be applied

38fb290

- additionally renames the map to fit aria-label usage better

refactor: guard onClick based on disabled state and variant

0fa990a

weronikaolejniczak self-requested a review April 13, 2026 08:30

weronikaolejniczak reviewed Apr 15, 2026

View reviewed changes

Comment thread packages/eui/src/components/steps/step_horizontal.tsx

chore: update changelog

c94677e

weronikaolejniczak approved these changes Apr 24, 2026

View reviewed changes

Merge branch 'main' into stepshorizontal/a11y-prevent-duplication

36d1937

mgadewoll merged commit 94a166c into elastic:main Apr 24, 2026
5 checks passed

mgadewoll deleted the stepshorizontal/a11y-prevent-duplication branch April 24, 2026 09:54

acstll mentioned this pull request Apr 28, 2026

Upgrade EUI to v114.3.0 elastic/kibana#265957

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[EuiStepsHorizontal][A11y] Prevent screen reader duplication#9574

[EuiStepsHorizontal][A11y] Prevent screen reader duplication#9574
mgadewoll merged 7 commits intoelastic:mainfrom
mgadewoll:stepshorizontal/a11y-prevent-duplication

mgadewoll commented Apr 8, 2026 •

edited by weronikaolejniczak

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Summary

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mgadewoll commented Apr 8, 2026 •

edited by weronikaolejniczak

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