No, an access profile does not directly reference roles to provide access. Instead, access profiles are collections of entitlements or permissions that are bundled together to simplify access provisioning. Access profiles can be associated with roles, but they do not reference roles directly. Roles in IdentityNow define broader sets of permissions, which may include access profiles, but access profiles themselves are not tied directly to roles.
References:
* SailPoint IdentityNow Access Profiles Documentation.
* SailPoint IdentityNow Roles and Access Profiles Configuration Guide.