Carbon Design System

Progress bar

Stable
Last updated Sep 30, 2026
Carbon Core

    A progress bar provides feedback on the status and duration of a process, helping users understand progress and expected wait times.

    Progress bar

    What Carbon provides

    Carbon bakes keyboard operation into its components, improving the experience of blind users and others who operate via keyboard. Carbon also incorporates other accessibility considerations, some of which are described below.

    Keyboard interaction

    The progress bar itself is not keyboard operable; however, when a progress bar is active, it may temporarily disable any dependent components. For example, if a progress bar is being used to upload a file, the Upload button is disabled until the progress bar state changes to either error or completed.

    Example of Upload file button in disabled state while the Uploading file progress bar is active

    Progress bars are not interactive, but may temporarily disable dependent components.

    Labelling and states

    The label above the progress bar as well as the optional helper text below it are surfaced to assistive technologies. Changes to the helper text are provided programmatically as status updates.

    The "uploading file" label and "48% uploaded" helper text are conveyed to assistive technology

    The label, the progress bar’s status, and the optional helper text underneath are all surfaced to assistive technologies.

    Design recommendations

    Design annotations are needed for specific instances shown below, but for the standard progress bar component, Carbon already incorporates accessibility.

    Provide status for indeterminate and errored progress bars

    The indeterminate progress bar does not measure progress, and so cannot programmatically inform the user when the process is complete. Also, neither variant of the progress bar can programmatically indicate to assistive technologies when it is in error. Information on both outcomes must be presented in the help text below the progress bar.

    Two progress bars respectively in error and successful, show the help text "Invalid file format" and "File uploading succeeded

    Helper text is required when a progress bar is in error or indeterminate.

    Development considerations

    Keep this in mind if you’re modifying Carbon or creating a custom component:

    • The loading component is implemented using the ARIA 1.1 progressbar pattern. For determinate progress bar, it outputs an ARIA role="progressbar" and uses aria-valuemin, aria-valuemax, and aria-valuenow to convey the loaded percentage to screen reader users.
    • If the progress bar shows the loading of a specific part or region of the application, set aria-busy="true" and aria-describedby="[progressbar-id]" on the related element to ensure assistive technologies can correctly convey this relation to the user.
    • Only hide the label when it is absolute clear to the user which process the progress bar represents. Note that you are still required to pass an appropriate label which will be read by screen readers.
    • Carbon uses aria-valuemin, aria-valuemax, aria-valuenow, and aria-busy to provide status on the progress bar. Due to inconsistent support for these attributes, Carbon also assigns an aria-live="polite" to the container holding the helper text.
    • Carbon uses aria-labelledby and aria-describedby to associate the label and helper text with the component.
    • The red error and green success SVG icons have aria-hidden="true" set, since the helper text and aria attributes provide the same information.

    Accessibility testing status

    Latest version: 1.114.0 | Framework: React (@carbon/react)

    ComponentAccessibility testStatusLink to source code
    Progress barTest(s) that ensure the initial render state of a component is accessible.Passes all automated tests with no reported accessibility violations.GitHub link
    Tests that ensure additional states of the component are accessible. This could be interactive states of a component or its multiple variants.Passes all automated tests with no reported accessibility violations.
    Tests that ensure focus is properly managed, and all interactive functions of a component have a proper keyboard-accessible equivalent.Test data is either not available or not applicable for this component state.
    This manual testing ensures that the visual information on the screen is properly conveyed and read correctly by screen readers such as JAWS, VoiceOver, and NVDA.A human has manually tested this component, e.g. screen reader testing.
    Learn more about tag and test meaningView all component accessibility status

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