---
name: Landmark
slug: landmark
category: accessibility
status: published
created: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
definition: A named region role (banner, navigation, main, complementary,
  contentinfo, search) that lets assistive technology jump between the major
  parts of a page.
aliases:
  - name: landmark region
    source: aria-apg
  - name: landmark role
    source: aria
  - name: region
    source: wcag
  - name: main landmark
    source: community
tags:
  - assistive-tech
  - navigation
relations:
  contrastWith:
    - heading-hierarchy
    - skip-link
  variantOf: []
  partOf: []
  seeAlso:
    - page-header
    - rotor
implementations: []
sources:
  - title: "APG: Landmark Regions"
    url: https://www.w3.org/WAI/ARIA/apg/practices/
  - title: A11y Project checklist
    url: https://www.a11yproject.com/checklist/
demo: inline
exhibit: false
useWhen: naming the big regions so they can be jumped between
---

A sighted reader takes in a page's shape at a glance: masthead at the top, navigation
down the side, the article in the middle, related links off to the right. Landmarks are
that shape written down so software can read it too. A screen reader user pulls up a
list of the landmarks on the page and moves straight to the one they want, in one
keystroke, without walking through everything in between. VoiceOver calls that list the
rotor, NVDA and JAWS reach it with a single letter key, and every one of them is reading
the same handful of roles.

Most of the roles come free with the right element. `<nav>` is navigation, `<main>` is
main, `<aside>` is complementary, and `<header>` and `<footer>` become banner and
contentinfo when they sit at the top level of the document rather than inside an
article or a section. The `<search>` element carries the search role. `<section>` and
`<form>` are the two that ask for something in return: they only become a region or a
form landmark once they carry an accessible name, which is the specification quietly
saying that an unnamed region is not worth stopping at. Everything here can also be
spelled with an explicit `role`, and the explicit spelling is what you reach for when
the markup is out of your hands.

Naming matters as much as marking. Two `<nav>` elements on one page arrive in the rotor
as "navigation" and "navigation", which helps nobody, so each takes an `aria-label`
(primary, breadcrumb, in this article). Labels never repeat the role: "main navigation"
is announced as "main navigation navigation". There should be exactly one main per page,
and the common advice is that every part of the page worth reaching belongs inside some
landmark, so nothing is stranded between them.

The failure mode is enthusiasm. A page where twenty things are marked as regions has a
rotor as long as the page itself, which is the same as having no landmarks at all. Keep
the set to the major parts, let headings carry the structure inside each one, and
remember that a skip link is the keyboard-only shortcut covering the same distance for
readers who never open a rotor.