ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) is a standard that provides roles and attributes to make web content more accessible to assistive technologies when native HTML alone is not enough.Open glossary entry → extends HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is the markup language for web pages. It defines the structure and content of a page, such as headings, paragraphs, links and images.Open glossary entry → with roles and attributes (such as role or aria-label) that give assistive technologies extra information. It is most useful for complex components that have no suitable native element, for example:

  • tabs,
  • modals and dialogs,
  • accordions and dynamic menus.

The first rule of ARIA, however, is: if a native HTML element already provides the required meaning and behaviour, use it instead of rebuilding it with ARIA. In short: native HTML first, then ARIA.

Many ARIA declarations are also redundant. A <nav> already has its role implicitly, so an additional role="navigation" is usually unnecessary. When ARIA is used, keyboard operation and focus management must be implemented correctly as well.

The first rule of ARIA #

Prefer native HTML semantics. A real <button>, <nav> or <dialog> brings keyboard behaviour and roles for free; ARIA attributes only paper over markup that chose the wrong element. Badly applied ARIA is worse than none, because it announces behaviour that does not exist.

Where ARIA helps SEO and AI readability #

Attributes like aria-label give text-less controls an accessible name — the same name crawlers use to understand icon links (a logo link labelled "RankScan" counts as Anchor text is the clickable, visible text of a link. It gives users and search engines clues about what the linked target page is about.Open glossary entry →). Landmark elements are semantic HTML regions such as <main>, <nav>, <header> and <footer> that give a page clear orientation points, especially for screen readers.Open glossary entry → and labels also help machine readers segment a page, which benefits assistive technology and content extraction alike.