Overview

A tree view presents hierarchical data as an expandable and collapsible structure. The most common mistake is building trees from nested <ul> lists with click handlers on generic elements. These miss the required ARIA tree roles, expanded/collapsed states, level information, and keyboard navigation that screen reader and keyboard users depend on.

WCAG Criteria:

• 1.3.1 Info and Relationships  — the hierarchy and nesting levels must be programmatically conveyed through ARIA roles and properties
• 2.1.1 Keyboard  — arrow keys must navigate the tree, expand/collapse nodes, and move between levels
• 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value  — each item must expose its role (treeitem), expanded state, level, and position

Key requirements:

• The container needs role="tree" with an accessible label
• Each item needs role="treeitem" with aria-level, aria-setsize, and aria-posinset
• Parent nodes need aria-expanded="true" or "false" — leaf nodes must NOT have aria-expanded
• Child groups are wrapped in an element with role="group"
• Use roving tabindex — the focused item has tabindex="0", all others have tabindex="-1"
• Arrow keys: Up/Down move between visible items, Right expands or moves to first child, Left collapses or moves to parent
• Home/End jump to the first/last visible item in the tree
• Enter/Space activate the current item

File Browser Tree

<!-- No tree roles, no aria-expanded, no keyboard navigation -->
<div class="file-tree">
  <ul>
    <li>
      <span class="folder" onclick="toggleFolder(this)">
        Documents
      </span>
      <ul style="margin-left: 20px">
        <li><span>Resume.pdf</span></li>
        <li><span>Cover Letter.docx</span></li>
      </ul>
    </li>
    <li>
      <span class="folder" onclick="toggleFolder(this)">
        Images
      </span>
      <ul style="margin-left: 20px; display: none">
        <li><span>Photo.jpg</span></li>
      </ul>
    </li>
  </ul>
</div>

<ul role="tree" aria-label="File browser">
  <li role="treeitem" aria-expanded="true"
      aria-level="1" aria-setsize="2" aria-posinset="1"
      tabindex="0">
    Documents
    <ul role="group">
      <li role="treeitem"
          aria-level="2" aria-setsize="2" aria-posinset="1"
          tabindex="-1">
        Resume.pdf
      </li>
      <li role="treeitem"
          aria-level="2" aria-setsize="2" aria-posinset="2"
          tabindex="-1">
        Cover Letter.docx
      </li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li role="treeitem" aria-expanded="false"
      aria-level="1" aria-setsize="2" aria-posinset="2"
      tabindex="-1">
    Images
    <ul role="group" hidden>
      <li role="treeitem"
          aria-level="2" aria-setsize="1" aria-posinset="1"
          tabindex="-1">
        Photo.jpg
      </li>
    </ul>
  </li>
</ul>
 
<script>
  // Roving tabindex: focused item tabindex="0", rest "-1"
  // ArrowDown/Up: move between visible treeitems
  // ArrowRight: expand closed node or move to first child
  // ArrowLeft: collapse open node or move to parent
  // Home/End: first/last visible item
  // Enter/Space: activate (toggle expand/collapse)
</script>

What’s wrong with the unsemantic nested lists?

• No role="tree" on the container — screen readers cannot identify the widget as a tree
• List items have no role="treeitem" — their hierarchical role is invisible to assistive technology
• No aria-expanded on folders — users cannot tell whether a node is open or closed
• No aria-level, aria-setsize, or aria-posinset — the nesting depth and position are not conveyed
• No keyboard navigation — arrow keys do not work, so keyboard-only users are stranded
• Indentation is purely visual (CSS margin) — the hierarchy is lost for non-visual users

What the screen reader announces:

Key teaching points:

• Roving tabindex, not aria-activedescendant — roving tabindex (moving tabindex="0" to the active item and setting all others to tabindex="-1") provides more reliable VoiceOver support than aria-activedescendant
• Never add aria-expanded to leaf nodes — only parent items that can be expanded or collapsed should have aria-expanded. Adding it to leaf nodes falsely tells screen readers the item has children
• Right/Left arrows for expand/collapse — this is the expected keyboard convention for trees. Right arrow expands a closed node or moves to its first child; Left arrow collapses an open node or moves to its parent

Resources

• WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices — Tree View Pattern 
• MDN — ARIA tree role
• MDN — ARIA treeitem role
• WCAG 1.3.1 — Info and Relationships 
• WCAG 2.1.1 — Keyboard 
• WCAG 4.1.2 — Name, Role, Value