Why ARIA labels matters more than it looks

It comes up on almost every project, usually later than it should. ARIA labels is easy to treat as a detail, and that is exactly why it is worth a few minutes of attention.

Most of it is correctness rather than charity: use the right element and much of it happens automatically. The failure mode is not doing it wrong, it is doing it once and assuming it stays done.

What is actually at stake

No ARIA is better than wrong ARIA. The reasoning matters more than the rule, because the rule has exceptions. It is worth deciding this deliberately rather than inheriting whatever the last person set up.

Use it only when native elements cannot do the job. None of that requires a large budget, only a decision and someone to own it. Write the reasoning down alongside the decision, because the reasoning is what changes first.

Warning signs

Labels must match what the control actually does. The reasoning matters more than the rule, because the rule has exceptions. It is the sort of thing that looks like polish right up until it costs you an enquiry.

The short version

Accessibility work almost always improves the experience for people who have no impairment at all. Three things worth confirming about ARIA labels before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• No ARIA is better than wrong ARIA — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

Pick the one that would hurt most if it failed, and start there.