What is the best practice for hiding content accessibly?
Jun 29, 2025 am 01:56 AMWhen hiding content, you need to take into account visual effects and barrier-free access. The correct approach includes: 1. Use clip or position: absolute to achieve visual hiding but retain accessibility, and avoid display: none or visibility: hidden completely removing content; 2. Do not hide key operation items, if you must hide text, visually-hidden class retains text; 3. Choose whether to completely hide content according to the scene, such as using display: none or aria-hidden="true" to deal with non-interactive elements; 4. Test whether the hidden strategy is accessible, and use screen readers, keyboard navigation and DOM checks to ensure compatibility and accessibility.
Hidden content is common in web development, such as responsive design, interactive expansion and collapse, or providing additional information to screen readers. But if you don't pay attention to the method, it may lead to access problems, affecting visually impaired users or people using assistive technology. The correct approach is to achieve "visual hiding" and ensure that the content is accessible to auxiliary devices.
Here are some practical tips to help you balance visual effects and accessibility while hiding content.
Use clip
or position: absolute
to achieve visual hiding but retain accessibility
Using display: none
or visibility: hidden
will completely remove content from the auxiliary device, causing the screen reader to be unable to read. If you want certain content to be visible only to auxiliary devices, you can use the following style:
.visually-hidden { position: absolute; left: -9999px; top: auto; width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow: hidden; }
Or the old version of clip
technology (although modern browsers support is better):
.visually-hidden { clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px 1px); clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); position: absolute; }
These methods can keep the content away from the visual presentation, but remain in the DOM and the screen reader can read it normally.
Be careful not to hide key operation items
Some developers will use similar methods to hide buttons or links, indicating actions only through icons. If this approach is not handled properly, the auxiliary device user will not know the role of these controls.
suggestion:
If you have to hide text, you can use the above
.visually-hidden
class to preserve text.For example, a search button only displays a magnifying glass icon, and you can add a hidden text to the button: "Search Website":
<button type="submit"> <span class="visually-hidden">Search website</span> <img src="/static/imghw/default1.png" data-src="search-icon.png" class="lazy" alt="" /> </button>
This keeps the interface simple without sacrificing accessibility.
Choose whether to hide content completely based on the scene
Sometimes you do need to make the content completely invisible and accessible, such as temporary status prompts or error messages on the page. At this time, you can use
display: none
oraria-hidden="true"
with confidence.But be aware:
-
aria-hidden="true"
is only applicable to non-interactive elements and cannot be used with form controls or focusable elements. - If you want to delay displaying the contents of a certain area, it is best not to load it at the beginning, rather than hide it and then display it at the beginning.
Test whether your hidden strategy is really accessible
Even if you write a CSS that looks OK, it may be problematic due to browser compatibility or different screen reader behavior. It is recommended to do the following tests:
- Use NVDA, JAWS, or VoiceOver to browse the page to see if the hidden content is correctly identified.
- Navigate the page with the keyboard to ensure that hidden interactive elements do not accidentally gain focus.
- Use the browser's Inspector to see if the DOM retains the content as expected.
Basically that's it. It’s not difficult to hide content, but it takes a little more caution and skill to make it accessible to everyone.
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