Make markers accessible

You can make markers more accessible by enabling click event handling, adding descriptive text for screen readers, and adjusting the marker scale.

  • When a marker is clickable, it can respond to keyboard and mouse input.
  • Text specified in the title option is readable by screen readers, and will display when a user holds the mouse pointer over the marker.
  • Increasing the size of markers reduces the precision required to interact with it across all devices — especially touchscreen devices — and improves accessibility. Default markers meet the WCAG AA minimum size standard but for developers aiming to comply with the WCAG AAA target size standard the marker size should be increased.

See basic marker customization to learn how to change marker scale, add title text, and more.

The following example shows a map with five clickable, focusable markers that include title text, and have been set to 1.5x scale:

JavaScript

async function initMap() {
    const { Map3DElement, Marker3DInteractiveElement, PopoverElement } = await google.maps.importLibrary("maps3d");
    const { PinElement } = await google.maps.importLibrary("marker");
    const map = new Map3DElement({
        center: { lat: 34.8405, lng: -111.7909, altitude: 1322.70 }, range: 13279.50, tilt: 67.44, heading: 0.01,
        mode: 'SATELLITE'
    });
    // Set LatLng and title text for the markers. The first marker (Boynton Pass)
    // receives the initial focus when tab is pressed. Use arrow keys to move
    // between markers; press tab again to cycle through the map controls.
    const tourStops = [
        {
            position: { lat: 34.8791806, lng: -111.8265049 },
            title: "Boynton Pass",
        },
        {
            position: { lat: 34.8559195, lng: -111.7988186 },
            title: "Airport Mesa",
        },
        {
            position: { lat: 34.832149, lng: -111.7695277 },
            title: "Chapel of the Holy Cross",
        },
        {
            position: { lat: 34.823736, lng: -111.8001857 },
            title: "Red Rock Crossing",
        },
        {
            position: { lat: 34.800326, lng: -111.7665047 },
            title: "Bell Rock",
        },
    ];
    tourStops.forEach(({ position, title }, i) => {
        const pin = new PinElement({
            glyph: `${i + 1}`,
            scale: 1.5,
            glyphColor: "#FFFFFF"
        });
        const popover = new PopoverElement();
        const content = `${i + 1}. ${title}`;
        const header = document.createElement('span');
        // Include the label for screen readers.
        header.ariaLabel = `This is marker ${i + 1}. ${title}`;
        header.slot = 'header';
        popover.append(header);
        popover.append(content);
        const interactiveMarker = new Marker3DInteractiveElement({
            // Include a title, used for accessibility text for use by screen readers.
            title,
            position,
            gmpPopoverTargetElement: popover
        });
        interactiveMarker.append(pin);
        map.append(interactiveMarker);
        map.append(popover);
    });
    document.body.append(map);
}
initMap();
index.js

CSS

/* * Always set the map height explicitly to define the size of the div element
 * that contains the map. 
 */
html,
map {
  height: 100%;
}
body {
  height: 100%;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
}
style.css

HTML

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Map</title>

    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./style.css" />
    <script type="module" src="./index.js"></script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="map"></div>

    <!-- prettier-ignore -->
    <script>(g=>{var h,a,k,p="The Google Maps JavaScript API",c="google",l="importLibrary",q="__ib__",m=document,b=window;b=b[c]||(b[c]={});var d=b.maps||(b.maps={}),r=new Set,e=new URLSearchParams,u=()=>h||(h=new Promise(async(f,n)=>{await (a=m.createElement("script"));e.set("libraries",[...r]+"");for(k in g)e.set(k.replace(/[A-Z]/g,t=>"_"+t[0].toLowerCase()),g[k]);e.set("callback",c+".maps."+q);a.src=`https://maps.${c}apis.com/maps/api/js?`+e;d[q]=f;a.onerror=()=>h=n(Error(p+" could not load."));a.nonce=m.querySelector("script[nonce]")?.nonce||"";m.head.append(a)}));d[l]?console.warn(p+" only loads once. Ignoring:",g):d[l]=(f,...n)=>r.add(f)&&u().then(()=>d[l](f,...n))})
        ({key: "AIzaSyA6myHzS10YXdcazAFalmXvDkrYCp5cLc8", v: "beta",});</script>
  </body>
</html>
index.html

Try Sample

To navigate markers using the keyboard:

  1. Use the tab key to focus on the first marker; if there are multiple markers on the same map, use the arrow keys to cycle through the markers.
  2. If the marker is clickable, press the enter key to "click". If a marker has an info window, you can open it by clicking, or by pressing the enter key or space bar. When the info window closes, focus will return to the associated marker.
  3. Press tab again to continue moving through the rest of the map controls.

To enhance accessibility:

  • Set descriptive text for a marker using Marker3DInteractiveElement.title option.
  • Add content to the header slot of PopoverElement.
  • Increase marker scale using the PinElement.scale property.