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USWDS - Date Picker: Add aria-current to today's date button - #6593
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ethangardner merged 6 commits intoJun 3, 2026
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Screen readers had no programmatic way to identify the current date in the calendar widget. The today class only provides a visual indicator. Adding aria-current='date' to the today button satisfies WCAG 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships) by exposing the current date semantically. Closes uswds#6546
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Verified the bug independently on the live design system docs (https://designsystem.digital.gov/components/date-picker/): today's button carries the --today class but no aria-current anywhere in the rendered calendar. The patch closes that gap exactly. LGTM.
Good Calls
- Reusing the existing
isSameDay(dateToRender, todaysDate)check by extractingisTodaykeeps the change to a few lines and avoids a second date comparison. aria-current="date"is the right token value per ARIA 1.2 (vs."true"or omitting the value).- Tests cover both directions (positive on today, negative on the rest), which is the right shape for an attribute that should appear exactly once.
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Status: Accepted
ethangardner
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Jun 1, 2026
ethangardner
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LGTM - thanks for the contribution!
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This was referenced Aug 11, 2026
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Summary
Improved screen reader identification of the current date. Today's date button in the calendar widget now includes
aria-current="date"so assistive technologies can programmatically identify it.Breaking change
This is not a breaking change.
Related issue
Closes #6546
Related pull requests
None.
Problem statement
The date picker calendar visually highlights today's date with the
usa-date-picker__calendar__date--todayCSS class, but there's no programmatic indicator for screen readers. Users relying on assistive technologies can't tell which date is today when navigating the calendar. This is a gap in WCAG 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships).Solution
Added
aria-current="date"to the today button during calendar rendering. The attribute is only set on the single button matching today's date. No other dates are affected.Major changes
isTodayboolean from existingisSameDay(dateToRender, todaysDate)checkaria-current="date"on the button element whenisTodayis trueTesting and review
aria-current="date"aria-currentnpm testto verify