WAI-ARIA

General Info

Web Accessibility Initiative’s Accessible Rich Internet Applications specification. The purpose of WAI-ARIA (often referred to as just ARIA) is to define a way to make web content more accessible when native HTML is unable to do so. Think of ARIA as something that fills in the accessible gaps left by native HTML.

5 Rules of ARIA

  1. Always use native HTML elements and attributes over ARIA when possible.

  2. Never change native semantics, unless you have no other choice.

  3. All interactive ARIA controls must be usable with a keyboard.

  4. Never use role='presentation' or aria-hidden='true' on focusable elements.

  5. All interactive elements must have an accessible name.