Components

Accordion

Use: Best practice English, Spanish, Tagalog

USWDS v3

Accordions, which use the UX principle of progressive disclosure, are a list of headers that can be clicked to hide or reveal additional content. By default, accordions are multi-selectable and borderless, however, props can be added to make them bordered and single-select.

Examples - v3

Default

View va-accordion v3 along with additional variations in Storybook

Bordered

View va-accordion bordered in Storybook

Single Select

Adding an open-single prop on the va-accordion component will allow the user to only open one accordion at a time.

View va-accordion single select in Storybook

Examples - v1

View va-accordion v1 default and additional variations in Storybook

Usage

Refer to the U.S. Web Design System for usage guidance

Additional guidance for VA

Additional uses of accordions

Organizing related sections of content to condense and chunk the content. When you need to organize related sections of content into a smaller space use accordions to condense and group the content.
A series of content: If you have a series of content in the body of a page and outside of a form or tool. For example, if you have a series of questions as part of an FAQ section or a set of options for payment that each have additional details.
Content organized under a new heading. If you have enough content that it makes sense to organize under a new heading that does not make sense under the same heading as the content nearby.
Reveal and compare relevant information. When users need to reveal and compare relevant and related information accordions can make this easier.

Additional reasons to consider something else

Users would benefit from seeing additional context for a discrete piece of content. Use the Additional info component instead to leverage show/hide functionality, especially in a form.
Content that can be organized under the current heading. Use the Additional info component if you have additional content that provides context and makes sense under the same heading as the content nearby.
Required content: If the majority of people need the content to accomplish the main task then it should not be hidden from view.

Behavior

Allow users to click anywhere in the header area to expand or collapse the content; a larger target is easier to manipulate.
Make sure interactive elements (such as links) within the collapsible region are far enough from the header that users don’t accidentally trigger a collapse. (The exact distance will depend on the device.)

Code usage

Attributes and Properties

Property	Attribute	Type	Default	Description
`disableAnalytics`	`disable-analytics`	`boolean`	`false`	If `true`, doesn't fire the CustomEvent which can be used for analytics tracking.
`openSingle`	`open-single`	`boolean`	`false`	True if only a single item can be opened at once
`sectionHeading`	`section-heading`	`string`	`null`	Optional accordion section heading text. Only used in analytics event. Default is null.
`uswds`	`uswds`	`boolean`	`true`	Whether or not the component will use USWDS v3 styling.

Events

Name	Description
`component-library-analytics`	The event used to track usage of the component. This is emitted when an accordion item is toggled and disableAnalytics is not true.
`accordionItemToggled`	This event is fired when an accordion item is opened or closed

Content considerations

Keep content succinct – accordion height will fluctuate depending on the length of the content.
If the accordion has a subheading, it should not wrap to two lines.
In general, accordions should organize static content. Outside of the forms review page, where accordions are used to group sections of editable information, we discourage the use of form elements like radio buttons, checkboxes, and buttons within accordions. Interactive elements will not be focusable when the accordion is in a collapsed state.

Accessibility considerations

Refer to the U.S. Web Design System for accessibility guidance

Additional info

Component checklist

Maturity

Guidance: Examples, usage, code usage, content considerations, and accessibility considerations are all complete.
Research: VFS team conducted research on this component which is linked from this page.
Stability: Component has been in production for more than 3 months with no significant issues found.
Adoption: Multiple teams have adopted this component.

Accessibility

Accessible use of color: Color is not used as the only visual means of conveying information (WCAG 2.2 1.4.1).
Accessible contrast: Text has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for small text and at least 3:1 for large text (WCAG 2.2 1.4.3). Visual information required to identify components and states (except inactive components) has a contrast ratio of at least 3:1 (WCAG 2.2 1.4.11).
Keyboard interactions: Follows WCAG 2.2 standards for keyboard accessibility guidelines and includes a description of the keyboard interactions. All interactive elements can be selected and activated using the keyboard.
Content zoom tested: Component has been tested with the display set to 400% at 1280px viewport width to ensure that the component does not have overlapping text or elements and all interactive elements still operate.
Tested in screen readers: Tested with screen readers to ensure there are no issues with reading order, spelling, dynamic content, and interactive elements.

Code assets

Variations: Storybook includes all variations (style, size, orientation, optional iconography, selection, error state, etc.)
Responsive: Component depicted in all responsive breakpoints.
Interactive states: Includes all interactive states that are applicable (hover, active, focus, keyboard focus, disabled).
Tokens: All design attributes (color, typography, layout, etc.) are available as tokens.
Internationalization: Describes i18n attributes.

Visual assets

Variations: Sketch library includes all variations (style, size, orientation, optional iconography, selection, error state, etc.)
Responsive: Component designed to work in all responsive breakpoints.
Interactive states: Includes all interactive states that are applicable (hover, active, focus, keyboard focus, disabled).
Tokens: All design attributes (color, typography, layout, etc.) are available as tokens.

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