How to fix aria allowed role on BigCommerce
Remove or replace the invalid `role="presentation"` (or other disallowed ARIA role) on HTML elements where that role is not permitted, so assistive technologies can correctly interpret your page.
Steps for BigCommerce
- Go to Storefront → My Themes → click Customize on your active theme → select Edit Theme Files (or download the theme to edit locally).
- Search template files (Handlebars `.html` files in `/templates/`, partials in `/templates/components/`) for the offending role attribute.
- Edit the relevant template file to remove or correct the `role` attribute.
- Upload/save the modified theme and preview it before publishing.
- Verify with axe DevTools on the live or preview storefront.
<!-- WRONG: role="presentation" strips button semantics, making it inaccessible -->
<button role="presentation">Add to Cart</button>
<!-- CORRECT: Remove the invalid role — the button keeps its native semantics -->
<button>Add to Cart</button>
<!-- WRONG: role="presentation" on an anchor removes link semantics -->
<a href="/products/shirt" role="presentation">View Shirt</a>
<!-- CORRECT: Remove the role; or if truly decorative, use a <span> instead -->
<a href="/products/shirt">View Shirt</a>
<!-- ACCEPTABLE: role="presentation" on a layout <table> (non-data table) -->
<table role="presentation">...</table>What is aria allowed role?
Every HTML element has a built-in meaning (its "semantics") — a button is a button, a heading is a heading, a link is a link. ARIA roles let developers override or supplement that meaning for screen readers. However, not every role can be applied to every element: the ARIA specification defines which roles are allowed on which elements. When you add a role that is forbidden for a given element — for example, placing `role="presentation"` on a `<button>` or `<a>` tag — you create a conflict that confuses assistive technologies. The `aria-allowed-role` rule flags exactly these mismatches.
Screen readers used by blind and low-vision shoppers rely on ARIA roles to announce what each element is and how to interact with it. An invalid role can cause a button to be announced as something meaningless, make a link unfocusable, or cause interactive controls to disappear entirely from the accessibility tree — effectively making parts of your store unusable for those customers. Beyond losing sales, inaccessible stores face growing legal risk under the ADA (US), AODA (Canada), EAA (EU), and similar laws — accessibility lawsuits against ecommerce sites have surged. Fixing ARIA role mismatches is also a signal of overall technical quality that modern crawlers and ranking algorithms increasingly reward.
See the complete Aria allowed role guide for every platform and the full background.
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