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Courses/Accessible Interface Foundations/Meaning before appearance/
Exercise #8

The First Rule of ARIA: Do Not Use ARIA

The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative published the famous First Rule of ARIA:

'If you can use a native HTML element or attribute with the semantics and behavior you already require, then do so instead of re-purposing an element and adding an ARIA role, state or property.'

Consider building an expandable accordion:

  • The ARIA Hack: A <div> with role="button", tabindex="0", aria-expanded="false", custom JavaScript keydown listeners for Space and Enter, and custom focus management.
  • The Native HTML Solution: <details> and <summary>. Zero JavaScript required, 100% accessible out-of-the-box on every browser, keyboard, and screen reader.

ARIA is an emergency bridge for custom widgets that HTML cannot express; it is not a replacement for good HTML.

Topics

Structure Carries Meaning: The Accessibility Tree
The Non-Negotiable Rule: Buttons vs Links
Document Outline: The Sacred Heading Hierarchy
Landmark Regions: Navigating Page Architecture
Form Labels: Why Placeholders Are Not Labels
The Alt Text Decision Tree: Informative vs Decorative
Lists as Navigation & Content Containers
The First Rule of ARIA: Do Not Use ARIA
Tabular Data: Making Tables Comprehensible
Master Challenge: Refactoring a 'Div-Soup' Component

From lesson

1

Meaning before appearance

Level 1 · Accessible interaction basics

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