ARIA Pressed

Aria-pressed is one of the states and properties of ARIA which is generally used for toggle buttons to inform the state of the toggle button. It indicates the state of the toggle buttons whether the button is pressed or not. Aria-pressed should only be used for toggle buttons. It should not be used for form submit buttons or buttons which opens a modal window.

Aria-pressed has three states: True, False, Mixed. 

Attribute	Description
aria-pressed=”true”	The button is a toggle button which is pressed
aria-pressed=”false”	The button is a toggle button which is not pressed
aria-pressed=”mixed”	Mixed value for tri-state toggle button

For a toggle button which is not pressed, developers should provide aria-pressed=”false” by default. Once user clicks/activates the button with mouse or keyboard, then developer should change the value to TRUE (aria-pressed=”true”).

Note: aria-pressed should be used only for toggle buttons. It should not be used at all for normal buttons which do not have toggle functionality.

Sample Code

Toggle button not pressed : <input type=”submit” value=”Bold” aria-pressed=”false” />

Toggle button pressed : <input type=”submit” value=”Bold” aria-pressed=”true” />

Not a toggle button : <input type=”submit” value=”Bold” />

Screen Reader Behavior:

Screen Reader + Browser	Aria-pressed state	SR behavior
JAWS 17 + IE 11	True	Bold Toggle button pressed
JAWS 17 + IE 11	False	Bold Toggle button
NVDA 2015 + FF 47	True	Bold Toggle button pressed
NVDA 2015 + FF 47	False	Bold Toggle button
Voiceover iOS9 + Safari	True	Bold Toggle button pressed Double tap to toggle setting
Voiceover iOS9 + Safari	False	Bold Toggle button not pressed Double tap to toggle setting
Talkback V6.0 + Chrome	True	Bold Toggle button ticked double tap to toggle
Talkback V6.0 + Chrome	False	Bold toggle button not ticked double tap to toggle

Examples & Reference:

1.      http://www.oaa-accessibility.org/examplep/button1/

2.      https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/states_and_properties#aria-pressed