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pepita96's avatar
pepita96
Regular Visitor
1 month ago

Power BI-generated accessibility issues in embedded reports (WCAG 2.2 ADA)

My team and I are evaluating an embedded Power BI Government report for deployment as a public-facing dashboard. Accessibility testing was performed using axe DevTools and Evinced in current versions of Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.
Before raising this issue, we implemented the accessibility features currently available to report authors, including:
  • Visual alt text
  • Visual titles
  • Keyboard navigation
  • Tab order
  • Filter and slicer labeling
  • Color contrast
  • Report layout and navigation
Despite these efforts, both accessibility tools continue to report accessibility issues within Microsoft-generated HTML and SVG markup inside the embedded Power BI report.
The affected elements appear within Microsoft-generated report containers such as .exploration and .displayAreaViewport. These findings concern descendant elements generated by the Power BI rendering engine rather than report-author content.

Primary findings

1. Invalid ARIA attributes on Shape Map SVG paths

axe DevTools reports repeated Critical aria-allowed-attr failures on Shape Map SVG <path> elements generated by Power BI.
Example:
<path tabindex="0" aria-selected="false">
 
These elements are generated by Power BI and cannot be modified by the report author.

2. Generated chart axis exposed as an unnamed listbox

axe also reports an aria-input-field-name failure on a generated chart-axis element similar to:
<g
role="listbox"
tabindex="0"
focusable="true"
>
 
The generated element does not receive an accessible name through aria-label, a valid aria-labelledby, title, or visible text.

3. Focus-management conflicts

Evinced reports focus-management conflicts where Power BI makes both composite chart containers and multiple descendant elements keyboard-focusable.
The generated role, tabindex, focusable, and keyboard interaction model cannot be modified through Power BI report settings.

4. Redundant focusable descendants

Evinced also reports redundant focusable descendants within generated Power BI chart structures.
The report author controls which visual is used, its title, alt text, and report tab order, but not how Power BI generates or manages focus for internal SVG elements.

5. Missing contextual labeling

After verifying the available author-configurable settings (visual titles, alt text, slicer labels, report tab order, etc.), the remaining findings occur on Microsoft-generated controls and chart structures within the embedded Power BI iframe.

Attempted remediation

We investigated whether these issues could be corrected outside Power BI.
We attempted to modify the generated HTML and ARIA attributes through browser developer tools. This was not a viable solution because:
  • Power BI dynamically generates and re-renders the report DOM and SVG markup.
  • Manual DOM edits are lost when visuals are redrawn.
  • The report is hosted inside a Microsoft-managed iframe.
  • The embedding application cannot reliably modify the report's internal DOM.
  • Power BI does not provide a supported report-authoring setting or JavaScript API for modifying these generated ARIA roles and attributes.
Based on our testing, we have not identified a supported report-author or embedding-level mitigation for these findings.

Previous outreach

We discussed these findings with our Microsoft third-party support contractor. They were not familiar with these Power BI-generated accessibility issues and were unable to identify:
  • whether these are known product issues,
  • whether an engineering work item already exists,
  • whom within Microsoft we should contact, or
  • what supported mitigation is currently available.

Why this is important

This dashboard is intended for public use, and our organization is working toward compliance with the accessibility requirements for public-facing websites and applications by April 27, 2027.
If these findings require a product-level change, we would appreciate being connected with the appropriate Power BI engineering or accessibility team so we can provide the complete accessibility reports privately, assist with reproducing the issues, and participate in discussions toward a resolution.

Environment

  • Power BI Government GCC
  • Embedded Power BI report
  • Shape Map and standard Power BI chart visuals
  • Google Chrome
  • Microsoft Edge
  • axe DevTools
  • Evinced

Questions

  1. Are these known Power BI accessibility issues?
  2. Are these findings expected behavior for the current Power BI rendering engine?
  3. Is there an existing engineering work item for these issues?
  4. Are these issues specific to embedded reports, the Shape Map visual, or the Power BI rendering engine generally?
  5. Is a product fix planned?
  6. Is there a supported mitigation available to report authors?
  7. Could we be connected with the appropriate Power BI engineering or accessibility team to discuss these findings and provide the complete accessibility reports privately?
Thank you for your time and assistance. We appreciate any guidance on the appropriate escalation path and look forward to working with the appropriate Microsoft team toward a resolution.
Need Help

6 Replies

  • tharunkumarRTK's avatar
    tharunkumarRTK
    Icon for Super User rankSuper User
    1 month ago

    pepita96 

    Based on the questions/issues youn raised

    I would suggest you to reach out to the Microsoft Product team

    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/support/create-support-ticket

    https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/power-platform/products/power-bi/clouds#Support

     

     

     

     

    Connect on LinkedIn

    Read my blogs here: https://www.techietips.co.in/

     

     

     








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  • v-kathullac's avatar
    v-kathullac
    Icon for Community Support rankCommunity Support
    1 month ago

    Thankyou tharunkumarRTK   for Addressing the issue.

     

    Hi pepita96   ,

    Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Fabric Community Forum,

     

    As we haven’t heard back from you, we wanted to kindly follow up to check if the solution provided for the issue worked? or Let us know if you need any further assistance?

     

    Regards,

    Chaithanya

    • pepita96's avatar
      pepita96
      Regular Visitor
      1 month ago

      Hi v-kathullac - thanks for your response. I've sent the info to our state government Microsoft rep and tenant admin. We are working through the processes to get eyes on this. I'll keep this post updated with developments. 

      Best regards

  • v-kathullac's avatar
    v-kathullac
    Icon for Community Support rankCommunity Support
    1 month ago

    Thankyou @tharunkumarRTK   for Addressing the issue.

     

    Hi @pepita96   ,

    Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Fabric Community Forum,

     

    As we haven’t heard back from you, we wanted to kindly follow up to check if the solution provided for the issue worked? or Let us know if you need any further assistance?

     

    Regards,

    Chaithanya

    • pepita96's avatar
      pepita96
      Regular Visitor
      22 days ago

      Hi Chaithanya,

      A Microsoft Power BI Support Engineer worked through the ARIA issues with me. In short, Microsoft confirmed that Power BI-generated ARIA attributes within the embedded iframe cannot be modified or overridden through the embedding application or Power BI JavaScript SDK. 

      Microsoft's VPAT/accessibility documentation identifies areas where Power BI partially supports or does not support applicable accessibility criteria. For limitations that cannot be remediated within Power BI, we can reference the applicable Microsoft accessibility documentation and provide supplemental accessible solutions for users with disabilities accessing our reports and dashboards. 

      At this time, there is no timeline for Microsoft to modify the Power BI-generated code associated with the ARIA attribute issues that may be identified by accessibility scanning tools. 

      Our ticket is closed.

      Thanks for keeping up with this.