What is ARIA?

What is ARIA?

ARIA is short for Accessible Rich Internet Applications.

ARIA is a set of attributes you can add to HTML elements that define ways to make web content and applications accessible to users with disabilities who use assistive technologies (AT). When accessibility issues cannot be managed with native HTML, ARIA can help bridge those gaps.

The formal name for ARIA is “Web Accessibility Initiative - Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA).” WAI-ARIA is a technical specification published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C. It initially had a working draft on September 15, 2008, and became a completed W3C Recommendation on March 20, 2014. When W3C published it as a recommendation, WAI-ARIA then became a set of web standards.

ARIA allows websites to:

  • Specify the type of content
    • Widget roles (buttons, checkboxes, radio, slider, etc.)
    • Document structure (e.g. region, toolbar, etc.)
    • Landmark roles (application, banner, navigation, etc.)
       
  • Specify information about the content
    • Aria-describedby (location of description)
    • Aria-disabled (perceivable but no operable)
    • Aria-live (element will be updated)