ARIA 1.2 — semantics for assistive technology

ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) is a W3C standard that adds roles, states, and properties to HTML elements so that dynamic UI semantics reach screen readers.

First rule: don’t use ARIA if you can use HTML

Native elements (button, link, input) bring accessible semantics for free. ARIA complements — it doesn’t replace.

Roles, states, properties

role="dialog", aria-expanded, aria-describedby — these carry state and structure to a screen reader when native HTML isn’t enough.

Typical Toiste findings

Missing aria-label on buttons that are keyboard-reachable but nameless to screen readers; misused role="button" on plain divs.

References

W3C WAI-ARIA 1.2

Standards

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