---
name: Current page indicator
slug: current-page-indicator
category: accessibility
status: published
created: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
definition: The marking of which item in a navigation set is the one you are on,
  exposed with aria-current so it survives without the colour cue.
aliases:
  - name: aria-current
    source: aria
  - name: active nav item
    source: community
  - name: you are here
    source: community
  - name: current step
    source: community
tags:
  - assistive-tech
  - navigation
relations:
  contrastWith:
    - breadcrumbs
    - step-indicator
    - sliding-indicator
  variantOf: []
  partOf: []
  seeAlso:
    - navigation-bar
implementations: []
sources:
  - title: "MDN: aria-current"
    url: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Accessibility/ARIA/Reference/Attributes/aria-current
  - title: "W3C technique ARIA26: aria-current"
    url: https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Techniques/aria/ARIA26
demo: inline
exhibit: false
useWhen: showing which nav item is the page you are on
---

A navigation menu answers two questions at once: where can I go, and where am I? The
second one is the current page indicator, and it is usually the first thing to be built
out of colour alone. A blue link among grey ones is a marking that disappears for anyone
who cannot separate the two hues, and it says nothing at all to somebody listening to
the page rather than looking at it.

`aria-current` is the part that talks. Put `aria-current="page"` on the navigation item
for the page being viewed and it is announced as the current page, once, on the one item
that deserves it. The attribute takes other values for other kinds of set: `step` in a
multi-step flow, `location` on a progress path, `date` in a calendar, `time` in a
schedule, and a bare `true` when the set is something none of those words fit. Two rules
keep it useful: exactly one item per set carries it, and `false` (or leaving it off) is
the state for everything else, since `aria-current="false"` is not announced.

The visible half has to survive a colour-only review. Add something with a shape: a
weight change, a left bar or an underline, an inset marker, a small "you are here" dot.
The reliable test is to look at the navigation in greyscale, or simply squint, and see
whether the current item is still findable. This is WCAG's Use of Colour criterion
(1.4.1) applied to the one component that breaks it most often.

Two neighbours borrow the same idea in different shapes.
[Breadcrumbs](/breadcrumbs) mark their last crumb as current, which is why that crumb is
usually not a link at all. A [step indicator](/step-indicator) marks the stage you are on
with `aria-current="step"`, and a [page indicator](/page-indicator) marks the slide you
are on among the dots. The vocabulary is one attribute; what changes is the word after
it.