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[Feature Request][Side Navigation]: Structure enhancement for singular level setup #14198
Description
Feature Request Description
The current code structure of Side Navigation is tree, but when there are no sub-items configured and navigation is present as singular level, the a11y issues appear:
WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A), 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A).
Proposed Solution
Add appropriate navigation structure for side navigation and use tree structure only when sub-items are present
Proposed Alternatives
Give an option to implement switch on client side to have different side navigation structure depending on the content
Organization
SAP UDEx
Additional Context
No response
Priority
High
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- I’m not disclosing any internal or sensitive information.
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GDamyanov commentedon Oct 27, 2026
Hello @UI5/ui5-team-ctr-rod,
Could you check this feature request.
Thanks & Kind Regards,
Georgi
dimovpetar commentedon Oct 28, 2026
Hello,
I have tested a single-level Side Navigation with both axe DevTools and Access Assistant (our reference validation tool) and could not reproduce the reported violations:
tree→treeitemstructure.treeitemis a valid child oftree, so the relationships are programmatically determinable. Neither tool reported a 1.3.1 finding on the structure.treeitem), an accessible name, and its state. Leaf items correctly carry noaria-expanded(there is nothing to expand), so there is no role/behavior mismatch — and neither tool reported a 4.1.2 finding.Could you clarify how these violations were identified — did you use a testing tool? If so, which one, and could you share its exact output?
Best regards,
Petar
MaksymZahreba commentedon Oct 28, 2026
Hi Petar,
Thank you for your time. From code point of view a11y QA confirmed that no issues are present neither on UI5 or UDEx, issue was rather that it is confusing from the user perspective to navigate through a
treewith no sub-items and redirecting links that are not announced as such by a11y tools, which eventually turned into manually identified as mentioned a11y violations. In other words the cause of issues was specific use of the component.After long discussion on our end and team that needed functionality that we requested, which eventually would've presented Side Navigation from a11y side as grouped links instead of tree, was concluded that component simply does not fit the requirement, and design\usage should be changed instead, so that component could be used appropriately.
At the current moment no change is needed for Side Navigation, and ticket can be closed as not planned.
Best regards,
Maksym
github-actions commentedon Oct 29, 2026
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