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MenuItem: make accessible when disabled #71251

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Merged
ciampo merged 3 commits into from
Aug 19, 2025
Merged

MenuItem: make accessible when disabled #71251

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dc4a8fd
MenuItem: make accessible when disabled
ciampo Aug 19, 2025
76ba101
CHANGELOG
ciampo Aug 19, 2025
fed7bde
Update tests to account for different way to disable menu item
ciampo Aug 19, 2025
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4 changes: 2 additions & 2 deletions packages/block-library/src/navigation/edit/test/navigation-menu-selector.js
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -295,7 +295,7 @@ describe( 'NavigationMenuSelector', () => {
screen.queryByRole( 'menuitem', {
name: 'Create new Menu',
} )
).toBeDisabled();
).toHaveAttribute( 'aria-disabled', 'true' );

// once the menu is created
// no more network activity to wait on
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -619,7 +619,7 @@ describe( 'NavigationMenuSelector', () => {
// Check all menu items are present but disabled.
screen.getAllByRole( 'menuitem' ).forEach( ( item ) => {
// // Check all menu items are present but disabled.
expect( item ).toBeDisabled();
expect( item ).toHaveAttribute( 'aria-disabled', 'true' );
} );

// once the menu is imported
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4 changes: 4 additions & 0 deletions packages/components/CHANGELOG.md
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Expand Up @@ -2,6 +2,10 @@

## Unreleased

### Bug fixes

- `MenuItem`: make accessible when disabled ([#71251](https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/71251)).

### Enhancement

- Upgrade `gradient-parser` to version `1.1.1` to support HSL/HSLA color, CSS variables, and `calc()` expressions ([#71186](https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/71186)).
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1 change: 1 addition & 0 deletions packages/components/src/menu-item/index.tsx
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Expand Up @@ -67,6 +67,7 @@ function UnforwardedMenuItem(
role={ role }
icon={ iconPosition === 'left' ? icon : undefined }
className={ className }
accessibleWhenDisabled
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@ciampo ciampo Aug 19, 2025

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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

accessibleWhenDisabled
disabled={ control.isDisabled }
>
{ control.title }
</Button>

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

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@tyxla tyxla Aug 19, 2025

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Is accessibleWhenDisabled something that we want to keep optional for MenuItem?

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@ciampo ciampo Aug 19, 2025 •
edited
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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 DropdownMenu component already sets accessibleWhenDisabled internally when using the controls prop instead of children (see this comment);
  • other established component libraries, such as Ariakit and Base UI, also apply the same treatment (ie. focusable + aria-disabled attribute + no-op on click events) to their disabled menu items;
  • inherently, the new (experimental) Menu component 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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@tyxla tyxla Aug 19, 2025

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Thanks for confirming 👍

{ ...buttonProps }
>
<span className="components-menu-item__item">{ children }</span>
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