MenuItem: make accessible when disabled #71251
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ciampo
added
[Type] Bug
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ciampo
commented
Aug 19, 2025
| role={ role } | ||
| icon={ iconPosition === 'left' ? icon : undefined } | ||
| className={ className } | ||
| accessibleWhenDisabled |
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Interestingly, the bug fixed by this PR doesn't occur when using DropdownMenu's controls prop (as opposed to using the children prop).
That is because DropdownMenu internally doesn't use MenuItem when mapping over the controls prop, but uses the Button component directly and sets the accessibleWhenDisabled prop already:
gutenberg/packages/components/src/dropdown-menu/index.tsx
Lines 205 to 209 in 15bff41
I would typically work on refactoring DropdownMenu to use MenuItem internally, but it's probably not worth it given that we already have a newer Menu component, and the upcoming DS effort
tyxla
reviewed
Aug 19, 2025
| role={ role } | ||
| icon={ iconPosition === 'left' ? icon : undefined } | ||
| className={ className } | ||
| accessibleWhenDisabled |
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Is accessibleWhenDisabled something that we want to keep optional for MenuItem?
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I don't think so — since MenuItem is supposed to be part of a Menu (and therefore, a composite widget), it makes sense for it to be always accessible when disabled (ie. focusable + aria-disabled attribute + no-op on click events).
Moreover, this change aligns with other menu impementations:
- the
DropdownMenucomponent already setsaccessibleWhenDisabledinternally when using thecontrolsprop instead ofchildren(see this comment); - other established component libraries, such as Ariakit and Base UI, also apply the same treatment (ie. focusable +
aria-disabledattribute + no-op on click events) to their disabled menu items; - inherently, the new (experimental)
Menucomponent also behaves the same way
In short, I don't think consumers should (or would) set a menu item as non-accessible while disabled.
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Size Change: -34 B (0%) Total Size: 1.92 MB
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adamsilverstein
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Aug 20, 2025
* MenuItem: make accessible when disabled * CHANGELOG * Update tests to account for different way to disable menu item
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What?
Allow
MenuItemto be accessible (focusable) even when disabled.Why?
This prevents a bug in
DropdownMenuwhere the whole menu would become inaccessible (ie. no keyboard interactions, no close on click outside) if all the menu items are disabled.How?
By adding the
accessibleWhenDisabledprop onMenuItem's internalButtoncomponent.Testing Instructions
MenuItemof aDropdownMenuas disabledScreenshots or screencast
Kapture.2025-08-19.at.17.19.46.mp4
Kapture.2025-08-19.at.17.10.01.mp4