Visually Hidden

A `<span>` that is invisible on screen but still read by assistive tech — the component form of the `sr-only` utility.

a11yserver≥ 320pxuiv1.1.0

Visually Hidden — live renderprimitives-visuallyhidden--default ↗

Rendered from the story the storybook (a11y) CI gate runs axe against — the preview can't show something that hasn't been verified.

Install

Two equivalent paths — the URL works in any shadcn-CLI setup; the alias works once you've registered @interlace in your components.json.

Via shadcn URL

npx shadcn@latest add https://ds.interlace.tools/r/visually-hidden.json

With the @interlace alias

npx shadcn@latest add @interlace/visually-hidden

History

This component is at v1.1.0, first shipped in @interlace/ui 1.0.0. The version is stamped as a banner into the file the install writes, so the copy in your tree says which one you have — compare it with the number above before deciding whether to re-run the install.

No release note names this component yet. It shipped with the release above and has not changed since — see the full changelog for what moved elsewhere in the DS.

Import

2 named exports — pull the parts you need.

Public API

import { MIN_VIEWPORT, VisuallyHidden } from '@/components/ui/visually-hidden';

Anatomy

Extracted from the primitive's JSDoc header. The source is the only documentation that can't drift.

VisuallyHidden                    (span — data-min-viewport=320)
    └─ children                     (the screen-reader-only text)
One part, and always a `<span>`. There is no `as` prop and no `render`
seam: to hide a different element, put `className="sr-only"` on it.

API reference

Parsed from the type declarations in the source — the same file the install writes into your tree, so this table can't drift from the component you get.

VisuallyHiddenProps

Also accepts every <span> attribute.

Accessibility

Every story for this component is rendered headlessly and checked with axe-core (wcag2aa, wcag22aa, best-practice, ACT) on every PR. That gate has no continue-on-error, so what ships has zero known violations.

What follows is what static analysis can see. Axe cannot press a key and never sees an overlay open, so the operable-without-a-mouse claim lives in Behavior instead, where the keyboard path is replayed step by step.

Focus + keyboard behaviour: Native element semantics — no interaction layer to get wrong.
Focus ring (WCAG 2.2 SC 2.4.13): Not focusable — no focus indicator required.
Reduced motion: No animation to gate.
ARIA in the source: None — semantics come from the element or the Base UI primitive rather than hand-written ARIA.

Examples

3 more states from the same story file.

external link suffixprimitives-visuallyhidden--external-link-suffix ↗

as labelprimitives-visuallyhidden--as-label ↗

below min viewportprimitives-visuallyhidden--below-min-viewport ↗

R-rule compliance

Every primitive in @interlace/ui models to the portable 26-rule floor enforced by the componentApi ESLint preset. The cells below pin exactly where each rule applies in this file.

Rule	Concept	Where
R4	Extends native el	`VisuallyHiddenProps = React.ComponentProps<'span'>`
R6	data-slot on root	`data-slot="visually-hidden"`
R7	className merged + ...rest	`cn('sr-only', className)` + `{...props}`
R14	Declares min viewport	`data-min-viewport={String(MIN_VIEWPORT)}` + exported const
R18	Tailwind only	Zero inline `style`; `sr-only` class only
R19	Tokens only	No color tokens — invisible primitive
R25	Server component	No hooks → no `'use client'`
R26	A11y from native el	sr-only contract = canonical 1px-clip positioning

Minimum viewport

This primitive declares MIN_VIEWPORT = 320 CSS px (DESIGN_PRINCIPLES #14). When mounted in a container narrower than this, the preflight contract draws a dev-mode outline so the regression is visible during local development.

Opt-in to the dev-mode warning

<body data-interlace-dev>...</body>

Add the data-interlace-dev attribute to the body in development builds only — preflight then outlines any primitive whose container is below its declared data-min-viewport.

Dependencies

Base UI primitive: Native / no Base UI dependency
Lucide icons: none
NPM dependencies: none
Registry dependencies: @interlace/theme
@interlace/cn

Source

The full implementation — components/ui/visually-hidden.tsx once installed.

82 lines · TypeScript

github ↗

import * as React from 'react';

// @interlace/visually-hidden v1.1.0 — Interlace design system.
// Docs, props and live preview: https://ds.interlace.tools/c/visually-hidden
// What changed since: https://ds.interlace.tools/c/visually-hidden#history
// Generated banner — keep it, the upgrade diff reads this version.

/**
 * @interlace/ui — VisuallyHidden
 *
 * A `<span>` that is invisible on screen but still read by assistive tech —
 * the component form of the `sr-only` utility.
 *
 * Use it for the labels and inline context a sighted reader gets from layout
 * and a screen-reader user does not, like "(opens in a new tab)" beside an
 * external-link icon.
 *
 * Different from `display: none` and `visibility: hidden` — those remove
 * the node from the accessibility tree. This uses the canonical "sr-only"
 * positioning hack (1px × 1px clipped, off-screen) so the screen reader

…62 more lines…

Registry JSON

The raw registry record — what the shadcn CLI fetches.

/r/visually-hidden.json