What is ARIA?
Also called: WAI-ARIA
The short answer
ARIA is a set of HTML attributes that describe roles, states and labels to assistive technology when native HTML elements cannot express them.
ARIA, explained
The first rule of ARIA is to prefer a native element; wrong ARIA is worse than none.
Questions people ask about ARIA
What is ARIA?
ARIA is a set of HTML attributes that describe roles, states and labels to assistive technology when native HTML elements cannot express them.
Related terms
Semantic HTML uses elements for their meaning, such as header, nav, main, article, button and h1 to h6, instead of generic divs, so machines understand the page.
Screen readerA screen reader is software that reads a page aloud or outputs it to braille, letting blind and low-vision people navigate by headings, links and landmarks.
Web accessibilityWeb accessibility means building sites everyone can use, including people who are blind, deaf, have limited movement or cognitive differences, whatever device or assistive technology they use.
WCAGWCAG is the international standard for web accessibility from the W3C, organised around four principles (perceivable, operable, understandable, robust) with levels A, AA and AAA.
Part of the Web Encyclopedia by Apex Flow Digital. Definitions are general knowledge, kept current, with no invented statistics.