Categories: CSSScriptWeb Design

Accessible UI Component Library for Vanilla JS & React – Monochrome

Monochrome is a lightweight, accessible UI component library that delivers keyboard navigation, ARIA attribute management, and focus handling through a single 2.2kB vanilla JavaScript runtime.

It currently includes 4 prebuilt UI components (accordion, collapsible, menu, and tabs) and works with any server-rendered stack, static site generator, or React application.

The library uses the DOM as its source of truth. It reads and writes ARIA attributes directly, with no per-component state and no framework dependency at runtime.

It’s ideal for teams building content-heavy or server-rendered pages who need real accessibility compliance at a near-zero runtime cost.

Table of Contents

Toggle

Features:

Event delegation: A small set of global listeners handles every component on the page. There are no per-component instances, no memory allocations per element, and zero DOM queries at initialization.
ARIA compliance: Every component follows WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices and targets WCAG 2.2 AA.
Keyboard navigation: Arrow keys, Home, End, Enter, Space, and Escape all work as specified by ARIA patterns across every component.
Framework-agnostic HTML API: Components activate via an ID naming convention. Any server-side framework — PHP, Rails, Django, or plain HTML — can render the markup and get full interactivity from a single script tag.
Optional React wrappers: The monochrome/react package provides React components that generate the correct HTML structure and IDs.
Headless styling: No CSS ships with the library. You apply your own styles.
Browser find-in-page preserved: The hidden="until-found" attribute keeps collapsed content discoverable via Cmd+F in the browser.
Modern browser baseline: The library relies on the Popover API and hidden="until-found". Supports all current major browsers.

How To Use It:

1. Install Monochrome with the package manager you prefer.

# Using npm
npm install monochrome

# Using pnpm
pnpm add monochrome

# Using bun
bun add monochrome

# Using yarn
yarn add monochrome

2. Import the runtime once at your application’s entry point.

// Entry point: index.js, main.js, or app.js
// This registers the global event listeners that power every component
import "monochrome";

3. For projects that have no build step, use the CDN script tag:

<!-- Add this to your <head> or before </body> -->
<!-- Works in PHP, Rails, Django, WordPress, or plain HTML files -->
<script defer src="https://unpkg.com/monochrome"></script>

4. Create your own UI components. Monochrome identifies which elements to coordinate using a structured ID prefix system. You do not call any initialization function. The library reads these IDs on interaction and responds accordingly.

Prefix	Role	Example ID
`mct:`	Trigger (the button or clickable element)	`mct:collapsible:faq-1`
`mcc:`	Content (the panel that shows or hides)	`mcc:collapsible:faq-1`
`mcr:`	Root container (for grouped components)	`mcr:accordion:product-faq`

The third segment of the ID (e.g., faq-1) is your unique identifier. It links the trigger to its content panel. You choose it; just keep it consistent within a component pair.

<!-- Accordion Component -->
<div id="mcr:accordion:faq" data-mode="single">
  <div>
    <h3>
      <button id="mct:accordion:q1" aria-expanded="false" aria-controls="mcc:accordion:q1">
        What is monochrome?
      </button>
    </h3>
    <div id="mcc:accordion:q1" role="region" aria-labelledby="mct:accordion:q1" aria-hidden="true" hidden="until-found">
      A minimal component library...
    </div>
  </div>
  <div>
    <h3>
      <button id="mct:accordion:q2" aria-expanded="false" aria-controls="mcc:accordion:q2">
        How does it work?
      </button>
    </h3>
    <div id="mcc:accordion:q2" role="region" aria-labelledby="mct:accordion:q2" aria-hidden="true" hidden="until-found">
      Components are server-rendered...
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

<!-- Collapsible Component -->
<button id="mct:collapsible:details" aria-expanded="false" aria-controls="mcc:collapsible:details">
  Show more details
</button>
<div id="mcc:collapsible:details" aria-labelledby="mct:collapsible:details" aria-hidden="true" hidden="until-found">
  This content is revealed when you click the trigger.
</div>

<!-- Menu Component -->
<div id="mcr:menu:account">
  <button type="button" id="mct:menu:account" aria-controls="mcc:menu:account" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="menu">
    Account
  </button>
  <ul role="menu" id="mcc:menu:account" aria-labelledby="mct:menu:account" aria-hidden="true" popover="manual">
    <li role="presentation">Settings</li>
    <li role="none"><button role="menuitem" tabindex="-1">Profile</button></li>
    <li role="none"><button role="menuitem" tabindex="-1">Preferences</button></li>
    <li role="separator"></li>
    <li role="none"><button role="menuitem" tabindex="-1">Sign Out</button></li>
  </ul>
</div>

<!-- Tabs Component -->
<div id="mcr:tabs:demo" data-orientation="horizontal">
  <div role="tablist" aria-orientation="horizontal">
    <button
      role="tab"
      id="mct:tabs:t1"
      aria-selected="true"
      aria-controls="mcc:tabs:t1"
      tabindex="0"
    >
      Overview
    </button>
    <button
      role="tab"
      id="mct:tabs:t2"
      aria-selected="false"
      aria-controls="mcc:tabs:t2"
      tabindex="-1"
    >
      Features
    </button>
  </div>
  <div
    role="tabpanel"
    id="mcc:tabs:t1"
    aria-labelledby="mct:tabs:t1"
    aria-hidden="false"
    tabindex="0"
  >
    Overview content...
  </div>
  <div
    role="tabpanel"
    id="mcc:tabs:t2"
    aria-labelledby="mct:tabs:t2"
    aria-hidden="true"
    hidden="until-found"
    tabindex="-1"
  >
    Features content...
  </div>
</div>

5. If you use React, you can import the optional wrapper components. These components generate the correct HTML structure automatically.

// Accordion
import { Accordion } from "monochrome/react"
<Accordion.Root>
  <Accordion.Item>
    <Accordion.Header>
      <Accordion.Trigger>What is monochrome?</Accordion.Trigger>
    </Accordion.Header>
    <Accordion.Panel>A minimal component library...</Accordion.Panel>
  </Accordion.Item>
  <Accordion.Item>
    <Accordion.Header>
      <Accordion.Trigger>How does it work?</Accordion.Trigger>
    </Accordion.Header>
    <Accordion.Panel>Components are server-rendered...</Accordion.Panel>
  </Accordion.Item>
</Accordion.Root>

// Collapsible
import { Collapsible } from "monochrome/react"
<Collapsible.Root>
  <Collapsible.Trigger>Show more details</Collapsible.Trigger>
  <Collapsible.Panel>
    This content is revealed when you click the trigger.
  </Collapsible.Panel>
</Collapsible.Root>

// Menu
import { Menu } from "monochrome/react"
<Menu.Root>
  <Menu.Trigger>Account</Menu.Trigger>
  <Menu.Popover>
    <Menu.Label>Settings</Menu.Label>
    <Menu.Item>Profile</Menu.Item>
    <Menu.Item>Preferences</Menu.Item>
    <Menu.Separator />
    <Menu.Item>Sign Out</Menu.Item>
  </Menu.Popover>
</Menu.Root>

// Tabs
import { Tabs } from "monochrome/react"
<Tabs.Root defaultValue="overview">
  <Tabs.List>
    <Tabs.Tab value="overview">Overview</Tabs.Tab>
    <Tabs.Tab value="features">Features</Tabs.Tab>
  </Tabs.List>
  <Tabs.Panel value="overview">Overview content...</Tabs.Panel>
  <Tabs.Panel value="features">Features content...</Tabs.Panel>
</Tabs.Root>

The post Accessible UI Component Library for Vanilla JS & React – Monochrome appeared first on CSS Script.

Modern Text Search and Highlight Library Using CSS Custom Highlight API

React CSS Highlight is a lightweight and high-performance text highlighting library that uses the CSS Custom Highlight API to style search matches without touching the DOM structure. The library leverages TreeWalker for fast traversal and works across React, Vue, Angular, and vanilla JavaScript applications. Traditional text highlighting libraries insert wrapper…

November 19, 2025

In "CSSScript"

15+ Product-ready UI Components in Pure JavaScript/CSS – SimpUI

SimpUI is a lightweight JavaScript/CSS UI component library that helps you build minimal, clean, responsive webpages without dependencies or build processes. It currently provides 15+ ready-to-use UI components like buttons, modals, datepickers, and form elements that you can drop into any web project by including two CSS files and one…

August 28, 2025

In "CSSScript"

Drag-and-drop Form Builder with JSON Outtput – JS FormBuilder

JS FormBuilder is a vanilla JavaScript library that allows you to create an interactive, drag-and-drop form builder. The library provides a sidebar with draggable components and a canvas area where users can build forms visually. It generates standardized JSON schemas that store directly in your database. Features: Lightweight: Uses inline…

December 24, 2025

In "CSSScript"

rssfeeds-admin