Carbon Design System

Select

Stable
Last updated Sep 30, 2026
Carbon Core

    Select allows users to choose a single option from a list of values, helping ensure accurate input and consistent data selection.

    Select

    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

    A select component is reached by Tab and opened with Space, or the Up or Down arrow keys. The currently selected option will have focus. The arrow keys are also used for navigating between options. Users can jump about in the list by pressing individual letter keys, which will reposition to the first option beginning with that letter. Options are selected with Space or Enter keys, which also close the select. Pressing Esc closes a select without changing the selected option.

    Example of select keyboard interaction

    Selects are reached by Tab. Space and arrow keys open the list of options.

    illustration showing an open select with the focus on the Previewer option while the Editor option is already selected

    Development considerations

    Keep these considerations in mind if you are modifying Carbon or creating a custom component.

    • Carbon uses the combined attributes disabled, hidden, and selected in order to make a default prompt such as “Choose an option” not appear in the list of options when the select is open.
    • The component is built on the HTML select element and has limited styling, with most of the visual appearance coming from the browser.

    Accessibility testing status

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

    ComponentAccessibility testStatusLink to source code
    SelectTest(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.Passes all automated tests with no reported accessibility violations.
    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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