ARIA labels: the questions we get asked most

Most teams know this matters. Fewer have decided who owns it. The questions about ARIA labels that come up most often on our calls.

Most of it is correctness rather than charity: use the right element and much of it happens automatically. The teams that stay on top of it are the ones who put it on a calendar rather than a wish list.

Do we need to care about this?

No ARIA is better than wrong ARIA. It is worth being explicit about, because assumptions differ quietly. It is worth deciding this deliberately rather than inheriting whatever the last person set up.

Can it wait until after launch?

Occasionally. More often the post-launch version costs several times the pre-launch one. There is a version of this that is over-engineered, and it is worth avoiding.

How do we know it is working?

Labels must match what the control actually does. Getting it slightly wrong is survivable. Ignoring it entirely is not. Check it against what you would want a competitor's site to get wrong.

What this looks like day to day

The cost of retrofitting accessibility is several times the cost of building it in. Three things worth confirming about ARIA labels before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Use it only when native elements cannot do the job — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

If you want a second opinion on how yours is set up, ask.