Accessibility in the React Rich Text Editor Component

26 Mar 202520 minutes to read

The Rich Text Editor component is designed with accessibility in mind, adhering to WAI-ARIA specifications and implementing ARIA roles, states, and properties. This ensures full accessibility support, making it user-friendly for people who rely on assistive technologies (AT) or keyboard navigation.

The accessibility compliance for the Rich Text Editor component is outlined below.

Accessibility Criteria Compatibility
WCAG 2.2 Support Yes
Section 508 Support Yes
Screen Reader Support Yes
Right-To-Left Support Yes
Color Contrast Intermediate
Mobile Device Support Yes
Keyboard Navigation Support Yes
Accessibility Checker Validation Intermediate
Axe-core Accessibility Validation Yes
Yes - All features of the component meet the requirement.
Intermediate - Some features of the component do not meet the requirement.
No - The component does not meet the requirement.

ARIA Attributes

The toolbar in the Rich Text Editor is assigned the role of ‘Toolbar’ and includes the following attributes.

Property Functionalities  
role=”toolbar” This attribute added to the ToolBar element describes the actual role of the element.  
aria-orientation Indicates the ToolBar orientation. Default value is horizontal.  
aria-haspopup Indicates the popup mode of the Toolbar. Default value is false. When popup mode is enabled, attribute value has to be changed to true.  
aria-disabled Indicates the disabled state of the toolbar.  
aria-owns Identifies an element to define a visual, functional, or contextual parent/child relationship between DOM elements when the DOM hierarchy cannot represent the relationship. In the Rich Text Editor, the attribute contains the ID of the Rich Text Editor to indicate the popup as a child element.  

For more details on keyboard navigation, refer to the Keyboard support documentation.

  • The Rich Text Editor element is assigned the role of application.
Property Functionalities
role=”application” This attribute added to the Rich Text Editor element describes the actual role of the element.
aria-disabled Indicates the disabled state of the ToolBar.

[Class-component]

/**
 * Rich Text Editor - Accessibility Sample
 */
import { HtmlEditor, Image, Inject, Link, QuickToolbar, RichTextEditorComponent, Toolbar } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-richtexteditor';
import * as React from 'react';

class App extends React.Component {
    rteValue = "<p>The Syncfudion Rich Text Editor, a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor, is a user interface that allows you to create, edit, and format rich text content. You can try out a demo of this editor here.</p><p><b>Key features:</b></p><ul><li><p>Provides &lt;IFRAME&gt; and &lt;DIV&gt; modes.</p></li><li><p>Bulleted and numbered lists.</p></li><li><p>Handles images, hyperlinks, videos, hyperlinks, uploads, etc.</p></li><li><p>Contains undo/redo manager. </p></li></ul><div style='display: inline-block; width: 60%; vertical-align: top; cursor: auto;'><img alt='Sky with sun' src='https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/richtexteditor-resources/RTE-Overview.png' width='309' style='min-width: 10px; min-height: 10px; width: 309px; height: 174px;' class='e-rte-image e-imginline e-rte-drag-image' height='174' /></div>";
    
    tools = {
        items: ['Bold', 'Italic', 'Underline', 'StrikeThrough',
            'FontName', 'FontSize', 'FontColor', 'BackgroundColor',
            'LowerCase', 'UpperCase', '|',
            'Formats', 'Alignments', 'OrderedList', 'UnorderedList',
            'Outdent', 'Indent', '|',
            'CreateLink', 'Image', '|', 'ClearFormat', 'Print',
            'SourceCode', 'FullScreen', '|', 'Undo', 'Redo']
    };
    
    render() {
        return (<RichTextEditorComponent height={450} toolbarSettings={this.tools} value={this.rteValue} >
        <Inject services={[Toolbar, Image, Link, HtmlEditor, QuickToolbar]}/>
      </RichTextEditorComponent>);
    }
}
export default App;
/**
 * Rich Text Editor - Accessibility Sample
 */
import { HtmlEditor, Image, Inject, Link,ToolbarSettingsModel, QuickToolbar, RichTextEditorComponent, Toolbar } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-richtexteditor';
import * as React from 'react';

class App extends React.Component<{},{}> {
  public tools: ToolbarSettingsModel = {
    items: ['Bold', 'Italic', 'Underline', 'StrikeThrough',
        'FontName', 'FontSize', 'FontColor', 'BackgroundColor',
        'LowerCase', 'UpperCase', '|',
        'Formats', 'Alignments', 'OrderedList', 'UnorderedList',
        'Outdent', 'Indent', '|',
        'CreateLink', 'Image', '|', 'ClearFormat', 'Print',
        'SourceCode', 'FullScreen', '|', 'Undo', 'Redo']
  };

  private rteValue:string = "<p>The Syncfudion Rich Text Editor, a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor, is a user interface that allows you to create, edit, and format rich text content. You can try out a demo of this editor here.</p><p><b>Key features:</b></p><ul><li><p>Provides &lt;IFRAME&gt; and &lt;DIV&gt; modes.</p></li><li><p>Bulleted and numbered lists.</p></li><li><p>Handles images, hyperlinks, videos, hyperlinks, uploads, etc.</p></li><li><p>Contains undo/redo manager. </p></li></ul><div style='display: inline-block; width: 60%; vertical-align: top; cursor: auto;'><img alt='Sky with sun' src='https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/richtexteditor-resources/RTE-Overview.png' width='309' style='min-width: 10px; min-height: 10px; width: 309px; height: 174px;' class='e-rte-image e-imginline e-rte-drag-image' height='174' /></div>";
    
  public render() {
    return (
      <RichTextEditorComponent  height={450} toolbarSettings={this.tools} value={this.rteValue}>
        <Inject services={[Toolbar, Image, Link, HtmlEditor, QuickToolbar]} />
      </RichTextEditorComponent>
    );
  }
}

export default App;

[Functional-component]

/**
 * Rich Text Editor - Accessibility Sample
 */
import { HtmlEditor, Image, Inject, Link, QuickToolbar, RichTextEditorComponent, Toolbar } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-richtexteditor';
import * as React from 'react';

function App() {
    let rteValue = "<p>The Syncfudion Rich Text Editor, a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor, is a user interface that allows you to create, edit, and format rich text content. You can try out a demo of this editor here.</p><p><b>Key features:</b></p><ul><li><p>Provides &lt;IFRAME&gt; and &lt;DIV&gt; modes.</p></li><li><p>Bulleted and numbered lists.</p></li><li><p>Handles images, hyperlinks, videos, hyperlinks, uploads, etc.</p></li><li><p>Contains undo/redo manager. </p></li></ul><div style='display: inline-block; width: 60%; vertical-align: top; cursor: auto;'><img alt='Sky with sun' src='https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/richtexteditor-resources/RTE-Overview.png' width='309' style='min-width: 10px; min-height: 10px; width: 309px; height: 174px;' class='e-rte-image e-imginline e-rte-drag-image' height='174' /></div>";
    
    let tools = {
      items: ['Bold', 'Italic', 'Underline', 'StrikeThrough',
          'FontName', 'FontSize', 'FontColor', 'BackgroundColor',
          'LowerCase', 'UpperCase', '|',
          'Formats', 'Alignments', 'OrderedList', 'UnorderedList',
          'Outdent', 'Indent', '|',
          'CreateLink', 'Image', '|', 'ClearFormat', 'Print',
          'SourceCode', 'FullScreen', '|', 'Undo', 'Redo']
    };
    return (
    <RichTextEditorComponent height={450} toolbarSettings={tools} rteValue={rteValue}>
      <Inject services={[Toolbar, Image, Link, HtmlEditor, QuickToolbar]}/>
    </RichTextEditorComponent>);
}
export default App;
/**
 * Rich Text Editor - Accessibility Sample
 */
import { HtmlEditor, Image, Inject, Link, QuickToolbar, RichTextEditorComponent, Toolbar } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-richtexteditor';
import * as React from 'react';

function App() {
  let rteValue:string = "<p>The Syncfudion Rich Text Editor, a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor, is a user interface that allows you to create, edit, and format rich text content. You can try out a demo of this editor here.</p><p><b>Key features:</b></p><ul><li><p>Provides &lt;IFRAME&gt; and &lt;DIV&gt; modes.</p></li><li><p>Bulleted and numbered lists.</p></li><li><p>Handles images, hyperlinks, videos, hyperlinks, uploads, etc.</p></li><li><p>Contains undo/redo manager. </p></li></ul><div style='display: inline-block; width: 60%; vertical-align: top; cursor: auto;'><img alt='Sky with sun' src='https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/richtexteditor-resources/RTE-Overview.png' width='309' style='min-width: 10px; min-height: 10px; width: 309px; height: 174px;' class='e-rte-image e-imginline e-rte-drag-image' height='174' /></div>";
    
  let tools: object = {
    items: ['Bold', 'Italic', 'Underline', 'StrikeThrough',
        'FontName', 'FontSize', 'FontColor', 'BackgroundColor',
        'LowerCase', 'UpperCase', '|',
        'Formats', 'Alignments', 'OrderedList', 'UnorderedList',
        'Outdent', 'Indent', '|',
        'CreateLink', 'Image', '|', 'ClearFormat', 'Print',
        'SourceCode', 'FullScreen', '|', 'Undo', 'Redo']
  };
  
  return (
    <RichTextEditorComponent  height={450} value={rteValue} toolbarSettings={tools}>
      <Inject services={[Toolbar, Image, Link, HtmlEditor, QuickToolbar]} />
    </RichTextEditorComponent>
  );
}
export default App;

Keyboard Navigation

The Rich Text Editor component followed the keyboard interaction guideline, making it easy for people who use assistive technologies (AT) and those who completely rely on keyboard navigation. The following keyboard shortcuts are supported by the Rich Text Editor component.

For more details on keyboard navigation, refer to the Keyboard support documentation.

Customizing Shortcut Keys

You can customize shortcut keys using the formatter property.This allows you to configure custom key combinations for various actions in the Rich Text Editor. For example, you can set ctrl+q to open the Insert Hyperlink dialog.

[Class-component]

import { Count, HtmlEditor, HTMLFormatter, Image, Inject, Link, QuickToolbar, RichTextEditorComponent, Toolbar } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-richtexteditor';
import * as React from 'react';

class App extends React.Component {
    rteValue = "<p>The Syncfudion Rich Text Editor, a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor, is a user interface that allows you to create, edit, and format rich text content. You can try out a demo of this editor here.</p><p><b>Key features:</b></p><ul><li><p>Provides &lt;IFRAME&gt; and &lt;DIV&gt; modes.</p></li><li><p>Bulleted and numbered lists.</p></li><li><p>Handles images, hyperlinks, videos, hyperlinks, uploads, etc.</p></li><li><p>Contains undo/redo manager. </p></li></ul><div style='display: inline-block; width: 60%; vertical-align: top; cursor: auto;'><img alt='Sky with sun' src='https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/richtexteditor-resources/RTE-Overview.png' width='309' style='min-width: 10px; min-height: 10px; width: 309px; height: 174px;' class='e-rte-image e-imginline e-rte-drag-image' height='174' /></div>";

    customHTMLModel = {
        // formatter is used to configure the custom key
        keyConfig: {
            'insert-link': 'ctrl+q', // confite the desired key
        }
    };
    formatter = new HTMLFormatter(this.customHTMLModel);
    // to configure custom key
    render() {
        return (<RichTextEditorComponent value={this.rteValue} formatter={this.formatter}>
        <Inject services={[Toolbar, Count, Image, Link, HtmlEditor, QuickToolbar]}/>
      </RichTextEditorComponent>);
    }
}
export default App;
import { Count, HtmlEditor, HTMLFormatter, IHtmlFormatterModel, Image, Inject, Link, QuickToolbar, RichTextEditorComponent, Toolbar } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-richtexteditor';
import * as React from 'react';

class App extends React.Component<{},{}> {

  private rteValue: string = "<p>The Syncfudion Rich Text Editor, a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor, is a user interface that allows you to create, edit, and format rich text content. You can try out a demo of this editor here.</p><p><b>Key features:</b></p><ul><li><p>Provides &lt;IFRAME&gt; and &lt;DIV&gt; modes.</p></li><li><p>Bulleted and numbered lists.</p></li><li><p>Handles images, hyperlinks, videos, hyperlinks, uploads, etc.</p></li><li><p>Contains undo/redo manager. </p></li></ul><div style='display: inline-block; width: 60%; vertical-align: top; cursor: auto;'><img alt='Sky with sun' src='https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/richtexteditor-resources/RTE-Overview.png' width='309' style='min-width: 10px; min-height: 10px; width: 309px; height: 174px;' class='e-rte-image e-imginline e-rte-drag-image' height='174' /></div>";

  public customHTMLModel: IHtmlFormatterModel = {
    // formatter is used to configure the custom key
    keyConfig: {
    'insert-link': 'ctrl+q', // confite the desired key
    }
  };

  public formatter: any =  new HTMLFormatter(this.customHTMLModel);
  // to configure custom key

public render() {
    return (
      <RichTextEditorComponent formatter={this.formatter} value={this.rteValue}>
        <Inject services={[Toolbar, Count, Image, Link, HtmlEditor, QuickToolbar]} />
      </RichTextEditorComponent>
    );
  }
}

export default App;

[Functional-component]

import { Count, HtmlEditor, HTMLFormatter, Image, Inject, Link, QuickToolbar, RichTextEditorComponent, Toolbar } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-richtexteditor';
import * as React from 'react';

function App() {
    let rteValue = "<p>The Syncfudion Rich Text Editor, a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor, is a user interface that allows you to create, edit, and format rich text content. You can try out a demo of this editor here.</p><p><b>Key features:</b></p><ul><li><p>Provides &lt;IFRAME&gt; and &lt;DIV&gt; modes.</p></li><li><p>Bulleted and numbered lists.</p></li><li><p>Handles images, hyperlinks, videos, hyperlinks, uploads, etc.</p></li><li><p>Contains undo/redo manager. </p></li></ul><div style='display: inline-block; width: 60%; vertical-align: top; cursor: auto;'><img alt='Sky with sun' src='https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/richtexteditor-resources/RTE-Overview.png' width='309' style='min-width: 10px; min-height: 10px; width: 309px; height: 174px;' class='e-rte-image e-imginline e-rte-drag-image' height='174' /></div>";

    let customHTMLModel = {
        // formatter is used to configure the custom key
        keyConfig: {
            'insert-link': 'ctrl+q', // confite the desired key
        }
    };
    let formatter = new HTMLFormatter(customHTMLModel);
    // to configure custom key
    return (<RichTextEditorComponent formatter={formatter} value={rteValue}>
      <Inject services={[Toolbar, Count, Image, Link, HtmlEditor, QuickToolbar]}/>
    </RichTextEditorComponent>);
}
export default App;
import { Count, HtmlEditor, HTMLFormatter, IHtmlFormatterModel, Image, Inject, Link, QuickToolbar, RichTextEditorComponent, Toolbar } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-richtexteditor';
import * as React from 'react';

function App() {
  let rteValue:string = "<p>The Syncfudion Rich Text Editor, a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor, is a user interface that allows you to create, edit, and format rich text content. You can try out a demo of this editor here.</p><p><b>Key features:</b></p><ul><li><p>Provides &lt;IFRAME&gt; and &lt;DIV&gt; modes.</p></li><li><p>Bulleted and numbered lists.</p></li><li><p>Handles images, hyperlinks, videos, hyperlinks, uploads, etc.</p></li><li><p>Contains undo/redo manager. </p></li></ul><div style='display: inline-block; width: 60%; vertical-align: top; cursor: auto;'><img alt='Sky with sun' src='https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/richtexteditor-resources/RTE-Overview.png' width='309' style='min-width: 10px; min-height: 10px; width: 309px; height: 174px;' class='e-rte-image e-imginline e-rte-drag-image' height='174' /></div>";

  let customHTMLModel: IHtmlFormatterModel = {
    // formatter is used to configure the custom key
    keyConfig: {
    'insert-link': 'ctrl+q', // confite the desired key
    }
  };

  let formatter: any =  new HTMLFormatter(customHTMLModel); // to configure custom key

  return (
    <RichTextEditorComponent formatter={formatter} value={rteValue}>
      <Inject services={[Toolbar, Count, Image, Link, HtmlEditor, QuickToolbar]} />
    </RichTextEditorComponent>
  );
}

export default App;

Implementing Accessibility Best Practices

The Rich Text Editor component’s accessibility levels are ensured through an accessibility-checker and axe-core software tools during automated testing.

The accessibility compliance of the Rich Text Editor component is shown in the following sample. Open the sample in a new window to evaluate the accessibility of the Rich Text Editor component with accessibility tools.

See Also