ARIA

Accessible Rich Internet Applications — a set of HTML attributes that describe the role, state, and properties of interface elements to assistive technologies like screen readers.

Why it matters

It is how custom widgets tell assistive technology what they are — and the most misused tool in accessibility, because ARIA describes behaviour without implementing any of it. A div with role="button" still does not press with the keyboard.

The numbers

Rule 1 of ARIA — do not use ARIA when native HTML does the job
Role, state, property — the three things it declares

Related terms

Elements
Focus State
Gestalt Principles
Screen Reader
Adaptive Design

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