Technologies that support Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA).
This technique relates to:
For sighted users, the context and visual appearance of an element can provide sufficient cues to determine the purpose. An example is the 'X' often used in the top right corner of pop-up divs (light boxes) to indicate the control for closing the div.
In some situations, elements can be given the attribute aria-label
to provide an accessible name for situations when there is no visible label due to a chosen design approach or layout but the context and visual appearance of the control make its purpose clear.
In other situations, elements can be given the attribute aria-label
to provide an accessible name when the native HTML labeling element is not supported by the control - for example, when a div
set to contentEditable
is used instead of native form elements such as input type="text"
or textarea
in order to provide a richer text editing experience.
On a page, a link displays a pop-up box (a div) with additional information. The 'close' element is implemented as a button containing merely the letter 'x'. The property aria-label="close"
is used to provide an accessible name to the button.
<div id="box">
This is a pop-up box.
<button aria-label="Close" onclick="document.getElementById('box').style.display='none';" class="close-button">X</button>
</div>
Working example: Close button example.
<div role="group" aria-labelledby="groupLabel">
<span id="groupLabel>Work Phone</span>
+<input type="number" aria-label="country code">
<input type="number" aria-label="area code">
<input type="number" aria-label="subscriber number">
</div>
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement implied.
For elements that use aria-label
:
Check that the value of the aria-label
attribute properly describes the purpose of an element where user input is required
#1 is true.
If this is a sufficient technique for a success criterion, failing this test procedure does not necessarily mean that the success criterion has not been satisfied in some other way, only that this technique has not been successfully implemented and can not be used to claim conformance.
Techniques are informative—that means they are not required. The basis for determining conformance to WCAG 2.0 is the success criteria from the WCAG 2.0 standard—not the techniques. For important information about techniques, please see the Understanding Techniques for WCAG Success Criteria section of Understanding WCAG 2.0.