---
name: Active descendant
slug: active-descendant
category: accessibility
status: published
created: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
definition: A focus technique where DOM focus stays on a container or input and
  aria-activedescendant names which child is active, used when focus must not
  move.
aliases:
  - name: aria-activedescendant
    source: aria
  - name: virtual focus
    source: community
  - name: fake focus
    source: community
tags:
  - assistive-tech
  - keyboard
relations:
  contrastWith:
    - roving-tabindex
    - owned-element
  variantOf: []
  partOf: []
  seeAlso:
    - combobox
implementations: []
sources:
  - title: "APG: Developing a Keyboard Interface"
    url: https://www.w3.org/WAI/ARIA/apg/practices/keyboard-interface/
  - title: "MDN: aria-activedescendant"
    url: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Accessibility/ARIA/Reference/Attributes/aria-activedescendant
demo: inline
exhibit: false
useWhen: the typing field must keep focus while a list moves
---

Most keyboard widgets move focus to whatever the arrow keys landed on. Sometimes they must
not. In a [combobox](/combobox) the reader is typing, and the moment focus leaves the field
the next keystroke goes somewhere else. The way out is to leave DOM focus where it is and
point at the active item instead: the field keeps focus, and `aria-activedescendant` holds
the id of the option that is currently active. Assistive technology follows the pointer and
announces the referenced element as though focus were on it, which is why the pattern is
also called virtual focus.

Three obligations come with it. The element that keeps focus is the one that carries the
attribute, and it has to be focusable and carry the right role. Every candidate child needs
an id, since the attribute is a reference and nothing else. And the browser does none of
the work it usually does for focus: no focus ring appears, and no scrolling happens, so the
widget has to draw the active item itself and keep it inside the scroll container by hand.
Forgetting the second half is the common bug, and it shows up as a list that arrows past
the bottom of its own box.

The alternative is roving tabindex, where real focus does move and exactly one child carries
`tabindex="0"` while its siblings carry `-1`. Roving focus is the better default for a
toolbar, a menu, or a radio group, because everything that depends on real focus keeps
working. Active descendant is the answer where moving focus would break the interaction that
is still happening: a text field driving a list, a grid whose cell editor holds the caret, a
tree behind a filter box.

Support was patchy for years, and that history is why some component libraries still avoid
it. Current screen readers and browsers handle it well in the roles it is defined for, but
the pattern is unforgiving of small mistakes: an id that does not resolve, a reference left
behind after the list closes, or a visual highlight that is not the element the attribute
names. Write it once, against the [ARIA Authoring Practices](https://www.w3.org/WAI/ARIA/apg/)
combobox pattern, and reuse it rather than deriving it per widget. That is what this site's
own kit does, and this specimen is that shared implementation.