react-aria-modal, react-focus-lock, react-modal, and react-scrolllock are all npm packages designed to help developers implement accessible modal dialogs in React applications. These tools address common accessibility challenges such as trapping focus within the modal, preventing background scrolling, and ensuring screen reader compatibility. While some packages provide full modal components, others offer composable utilities that can be integrated into custom modal implementations.
Building an accessible modal dialog in React involves more than just showing a popup. You must:
role="dialog", aria-modal="true")The four packages — react-aria-modal, react-focus-lock, react-modal, and react-scrolllock — each tackle these requirements differently. Let’s compare how they work in practice.
react-aria-modal is a complete modal component that wraps your content and handles everything: focus trapping, ARIA roles, and scroll locking.
import AriaModal from 'react-aria-modal';
function MyModal({ isOpen, onClose }) {
return (
<AriaModal
titleText="My Modal"
mounted={isOpen}
onExit={onClose}
initialFocus="#modal-close-button"
>
<div id="modal-close-button" onClick={onClose}>Close</div>
<p>Modal content here</p>
</AriaModal>
);
}
react-focus-lock is a composable utility that only handles focus trapping. You use it as a wrapper around your own modal markup.
import { FocusLock } from 'react-focus-lock';
function MyModal({ isOpen, onClose }) {
if (!isOpen) return null;
return (
<div role="dialog" aria-modal="true" aria-labelledby="modal-title">
<FocusLock returnFocus>
<h2 id="modal-title">My Modal</h2>
<button onClick={onClose}>Close</button>
<p>Modal content here</p>
</FocusLock>
</div>
);
}
react-modal is a full modal component with extensive props for customization, including ARIA and focus behavior.
import ReactModal from 'react-modal';
// Must set app root once
ReactModal.setAppElement('#root');
function MyModal({ isOpen, onClose }) {
return (
<ReactModal
isOpen={isOpen}
onRequestClose={onClose}
contentLabel="My Modal"
shouldCloseOnEsc={true}
>
<button onClick={onClose}>Close</button>
<p>Modal content here</p>
</ReactModal>
);
}
react-scrolllock is a single-purpose utility that only disables body scroll. It does nothing for focus or ARIA.
import ScrollLock from 'react-scrolllock';
function MyModal({ isOpen, onClose }) {
if (!isOpen) return null;
return (
<>
<ScrollLock /> {/* Prevents background scroll */}
<div role="dialog" aria-modal="true">
<button onClick={onClose}>Close</button>
<p>Modal content here</p>
</div>
</>
);
}
All packages except react-scrolllock manage focus, but with different approaches.
react-aria-modal automatically:
It uses a hidden "sentinel" div technique to detect focus escape attempts.
react-focus-lock provides more granular control:
<FocusLock
autoFocus={false} // disable auto-focus
shards={[tooltipRef]} // allow focus on tooltip
>
{/* modal content */}
</FocusLock>
react-modal requires you to:
appElement to hide background content from screen readersshouldFocusAfterRender and shouldReturnFocusAfterCloseIts focus trapping works reliably but offers fewer escape hatches than react-focus-lock.
react-scrolllock provides no focus management. You must implement trapping yourself using useEffect and manual DOM focus handling — not recommended for production accessibility.
react-aria-modal and react-modal both disable body scrolling by default using overflow: hidden on <body> and compensating for scrollbar width to prevent layout shift.
react-scrolllock does the same but only this — it’s essentially a one-trick pony:
// Internally, react-scrolllock does:
document.body.style.overflow = 'hidden';
document.body.style.paddingRight = `${scrollbarWidth}px`;
react-focus-lock does not handle scrolling. You’d need to combine it with react-scrolllock or a custom solution:
function AccessibleModal({ isOpen, onClose }) {
return (
<>
{isOpen && <ScrollLock />} {/* from react-scrolllock */}
<FocusLock returnFocus>
{/* modal content */}
</FocusLock>
</>
);
}
react-aria-modal is the most opinionated:
react-focus-lock is the most flexible:
crossFrame, whiteList, and onActivationreact-modal strikes a balance:
className, overlayClassNamereact-scrolllock has no customization — it just locks scroll.
As of 2024:
react-scrolllock is deprecated. Its npm page states: "This package is no longer maintained. Consider using body-scroll-lock or react-remove-scroll instead." Do not use in new projects.react-aria-modal, react-focus-lock, and react-modal are actively maintained with recent releases addressing accessibility gaps and React 18 compatibility.You’re creating a reusable modal component for your company’s UI library.
react-focus-lock + custom scroll lockYou need a working modal fast for an admin dashboard with basic accessibility.
react-modalYour app must pass rigorous accessibility testing.
react-aria-modalYou’re using Material UI or Ant Design which provide their own modals.
react-focus-lock as a wrapper| Package | Type | Focus Trapping | Scroll Lock | ARIA Handling | Customizable | Maintenance Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
react-aria-modal | Full component | ✅ Automatic | ✅ | ✅ Built-in | ❌ Low | ✅ Active |
react-focus-lock | Utility | ✅ Configurable | ❌ | ❌ Manual | ✅ High | ✅ Active |
react-modal | Full component | ✅ Configurable | ✅ | ✅ Configurable | ✅ Medium | ✅ Active |
react-scrolllock | Utility | ❌ None | ✅ | ❌ None | ❌ None | 🛑 Deprecated |
react-scrolllock alone for modals — it solves only 1/4 of the problem.react-focus-lock if you value composability, or react-modal if you want convention over configuration.react-focus-lock with react-modal or react-aria-modal — they’ll conflict on focus management.Remember: accessibility isn’t just about libraries — it’s about semantic HTML, proper labeling, and user testing. These tools help, but they don’t replace thoughtful implementation.
Choose react-aria-modal if you need a fully accessible modal component out of the box with minimal configuration. It handles focus trapping, ARIA roles, and scroll locking automatically, making it ideal for teams prioritizing WCAG compliance without wanting to assemble lower-level primitives. However, its opinionated structure may limit layout flexibility compared to more composable alternatives.
Choose react-focus-lock when you already have a custom modal implementation but need robust, battle-tested focus trapping that works across edge cases (e.g., portals, dynamic content). It’s a focused utility that doesn’t impose styling or structure, making it perfect for design systems or component libraries that require fine-grained control over modal behavior while ensuring accessibility.
Choose react-modal if you want a widely adopted, full-featured modal component with built-in accessibility support and extensive customization options. It provides good defaults for ARIA attributes and focus management, though recent versions require explicit configuration of the app root element. Best suited for applications where rapid development and community support outweigh the need for minimal bundle size.
Choose react-scrolllock only if your primary concern is preventing background scrolling during modal display and you’re already handling focus management separately. It’s a narrow-purpose utility that disables body scroll without affecting focus or ARIA attributes. Avoid using it alone for modals; instead, pair it with react-focus-lock or similar for complete accessibility.
SEEKING CO-MAINTAINERS! Continued development of this project is going to require the work of one or more dedicated co-maintainers (or forkers). If you're interested, please comment in this issue.
A fully accessible and flexible React modal built according WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices.
This module provides a minimally styled "container" component to wrap your fully-styled "presentational" component. It provides the following features, while giving you complete control of the content:
role of dialog (or alertdialog).aria-label or aria-labelledby.document.body instead of its taking up its source-order position within the React component tree."Flexible" mostly means that this module provides absolutely minimal inline styles — just enough to get the thing working — but does not provide "complete" modal styling that would get in your way. You get to (have to) style the dialog yourself. (Maybe make a fancy-looking modal module that others could use, which depends on this one behind the scenes?)
If you like this kind of module (accessible, flexible, unstyled) you should also check out these projects:
npm install react-aria-modal
dist/react-aria-modal.js is the Babel-compiled file that you'll use.
Version 2+ is compatible with React >0.14.
Version 1+ is compatible with React 0.13.
Just provide the right props (see below) and pass the content of the modal as this component's child.
Look in demo/js/ for examples and view the demo, but here's a simple example:
const React = require('react');
const ReactDOM = require('react-dom');
const AriaModal = require('../../');
class DemoOne extends React.Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props);
this.state = {
modalActive: false
};
this.activateModal = this.activateModal.bind(this);
this.deactivateModal = this.deactivateModal.bind(this);
this.getApplicationNode = this.getApplicationNode.bind(this);
}
activateModal = () => {
this.setState({ modalActive: true });
};
deactivateModal = () => {
this.setState({ modalActive: false });
};
getApplicationNode = () => {
return document.getElementById('application');
};
render() {
const modal = this.state.modalActive
? <AriaModal
titleText="demo one"
onExit={this.deactivateModal}
initialFocus="#demo-one-deactivate"
getApplicationNode={this.getApplicationNode}
underlayStyle={{ paddingTop: '2em' }}
>
<div id="demo-one-modal" className="modal">
<div className="modal-body">
<p>
Here is a modal
{' '}
<a href="https://www.npmjs.com/package/react-aria-modal#">with</a>
{' '}
<a href="https://www.npmjs.com/package/react-aria-modal#">some</a>
{' '}
<a href="https://www.npmjs.com/package/react-aria-modal#">focusable</a>
{' '}
parts.
</p>
</div>
<footer className="modal-footer">
<button id="demo-one-deactivate" onClick={this.deactivateModal}>
deactivate modal
</button>
</footer>
</div>
</AriaModal>
: false;
return (
<div>
<button onClick={this.activateModal}>
activate modal
</button>
{modal}
</div>
);
}
}
ReactDOM.render(<DemoOne />, document.getElementById('demo-one'));
The modal can be activated in a couple of ways:
mounted proptrue as the mounted propSimilarly, the modal can be deactivated in a couple of ways:
false as the mounted propPass your dialog element as the child. And that's it.
When the modal is mounted, you'll notice the following:
role of dialog (or alertdialog) and an aria-label or aria-labelledby attribute.document.body, not inserted directly into the HTML source order, as you might assume; but it should still update correctly. (This makes positioning easier (no weird nested z-index troubles).)| Name | Type (Default) |
|---|---|
| alert | Boolean |
| applicationNode | DOM Node |
| dialogClass | String |
| dialogId | String ('react-aria-modal-dialog') |
| dialogStyle | Object |
| escapeExits | Boolean (true) |
| focusDialog | Boolean |
| focusTrapOptions | Object |
| focusTrapPaused | Boolean |
| getApplicationNode | () => void |
| includeDefaultStyles | Boolean (true) |
| initialFocus | String |
| mounted | Boolean |
| onEnter | () => void |
| onExit | (event) => void |
| scrollDisabled | Boolean (true) |
| titleId | String |
| titleText | String |
| underlayClass | String |
| underlayClickExits | Boolean (true) |
| underlayColor | String ('rgba(0,0,0,0.5)') |
| underlayStyle | Object |
| verticallyCenter | Boolean |
Any data-* or aria-* props that you provide will be passed directly to the modal's container <div>.
Type: Boolean
If true, the modal will receive a role of alertdialog, instead of its default dialog. The alertdialog role should only be used when an alert, error, or warning occurs (more info).
Type: DOM Node
Provide your main application node here (which the modal should render outside of), and when the modal is open this application node will receive the attribute aria-hidden="true". This can help screen readers understand what's going on.
This module can't guess your application node, so you have to provide this prop to get the full accessibility benefit.
Type: String
Apply a class to the dialog in order to custom-style it.
Be aware that, by default, this module does apply various inline styles to the dialog element in order position it. To disable all inline styles, see includeDefaultStyles.
Type: String
Default: react-aria-modal-dialog
Choose your own id attribute for the dialog element.
Type: Object
Customize properties of the style prop that is passed to the dialog.
Type: Boolean
Default: true
By default, the Escape key exits the modal. Pass false, and it won't.
Type: Boolean
By default, when the modal activates its first focusable child will receive focus.
However, if focusDialog is true, the dialog itself will receive initial focus —
and that focus will be hidden. (This is essentially what Bootstrap does with their modal.)
See the example below.
Type: Object
Customize properties of the focusTrapOptions prop that is passed to the modal dialog's focus trap.
For example, you can use this prop if you need better control of where focus is returned.
Type: Boolean
If true, the modal dialog's focus trap will be paused.
You won't typically need to use this prop. It used to be that the typical reason for pausing a focus trap was to enable nested focus traps; but as of focus-trap v4, the pausing and unpausing of hierachical traps is handled automatically.
Type: () => void
Same as applicationNode, but a function that returns the node instead of the node itself. This can be useful or necessary in a variety of situations, one of which is server-side React rendering. The function will not be called until after the component mounts, so it is safe to use browser globals and refer to DOM nodes within it (e.g. document.getElementById(..)), without ruining your server-side rendering.
Type: Boolean
Default: true
By default, styles are applied inline to the dialog and underlay portions of the component. However, you can disable all inline styles by setting includeDefaultStyles to false. If set, you must specify all styles externally, including positioning. This is helpful if your project uses external CSS assets.
Note: underlayStyle and dialogStyle can still be set inline, but these will be the only styles applied.
Type: String
By default, when the modal activates its first focusable child will receive focus. If, instead, you want to identify a specific element that should receive initial focus, pass a selector string to this prop. (That selector is passed to document.querySelector() to find the DOM node.)
Demo example 3 and an additional example below illustrate a good method if you want no initial visible focus. (Add tabIndex='0' to the modal's content and give it outline: 0;.)
Type: Boolean
By default, the modal is active when mounted, deactivated when unmounted.
However, you can also control its active/inactive state by changing its mounted property instead.
The following two examples are near-equivalents — the first mounts and unmounts, while the second changes the mounted prop:
var MyComponent = React.createClass({
..
render: function() {
..
var modal = (this.state.modalActive) ? (
<AriaModal onExit={this.myExitHandler}>
{modalContents}
</AriaModal>
) : false;
return <div>{modal}</div>;
},
});
var MyComponentTakeTwo = React.createClass({
..
render: function() {
..
return (
<div>
<AriaModal
mounted={this.state.modalActive}
onExit={this.myExitHandler}
>
{modalContents}
</AriaModal>
</div>
);
},
});
Type: () => void
This function is called in the modal's componentDidMount() lifecycle method.
You can use it to do whatever diverse and sundry things you feel like doing after the modal activates.
Demo Five, for example, uses it to modify class names and enable some CSS transitions.
Type: (event) => void
This function handles the state change of exiting (or deactivating) the modal.
It will be invoked when the user clicks outside the modal (if underlayClickExits={true}, as is the default) or hits Escape (if escapeExits={true}, as is the default), and it receives the event that triggered it as its only argument.
Maybe it's just a wrapper around setState(); or maybe you use some more involved Flux-inspired state management — whatever the case, this module leaves the state management up to you instead of making assumptions. That also makes it easier to create your own "close modal" buttons; because you have the function that closes the modal right there, written by you, at your disposal.
You may omit this prop if you don't want clicks outside the modal or Escape to close it, so don't want to provide a function.
Type: Boolean
Default: true
If true, the modal dialog will prevent any scrolling behind the modal window.
Type: String
The id of the element that should be used as the modal's accessible title. This value is passed to the modal's aria-labelledby attribute.
You must use either titleId or titleText, but not both.
Type: String
A string to use as the modal's accessible title. This value is passed to the modal's aria-label attribute.
You must use either titleId or titleText, but not both.
Type: String
Apply a class to the underlay in order to custom-style it.
This module does apply various inline styles, though, so be aware that overriding some styles might be difficult. If, for example, you want to change the underlay's color, you should probably use the underlayColor prop instead of a class. If you would rather control all CSS, see includeDefaultStyles.
Type: Boolean
Default: true
By default, a click on the underlay will exit the modal. Pass false, and clicking on the underlay will do nothing.
Type: String (color value) or false
Default: rgba(0,0,0,0.5)
If you want to change the underlay's color, you can do that with this prop.
If false, no background color will be applied with inline styles.
Presumably you will apply then yourself via an underlayClass.
Type: Object
Customize properties of the style prop that is passed to the underlay.
The best way to add some vertical displacement to the dialog is to add top & bottom padding to the underlay. This is illustrated in the demo examples.
Type: Boolean
If true, the modal's contents will be vertically (as well as horizontally) centered.
react-aria-modal uses react-displace to insert the modal into a new element at the end of <body>, making it easier to deal with positioning and z-indexes.
The static renderTo function returns a new component that renders modals into a specific element, rather than a newly created element at the bottom of the page.
Strings are used as selectors, passed to querySelector.
See demo six for an example.
An alert dialog that itself receives initial focus (but has no visible outline) and does not exit when the underlay is clicked, and is vertically centered:
var AriaModal = require('react-aria-modal');
var MyModal = React.createClass({
..
render: function() {
return (
<AriaModal
onExit={this.myExitHandler}
alert={true}
focusDialog={true}
titleId='modal-title'
underlayClickExits={false}
verticallyCenter={true}
>
<div
style={{ outline: 0 }}
className='my-modal-dialog'
>
<h2 id='modal-title'>Alert!</h2>
..
</div>
</AriaModal>
)
}
})
Please note that this project is released with a Contributor Code of Conduct. By participating in this project you agree to abide by its terms.
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