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Re: arai-describedby and aria-hidden

for

From: Jared Smith
Date: Feb 4, 2015 9:06AM

I think the intention is to reduce the repetition of content when the
screen reader is reading through the page. Labels for form controls
will be read twice - once as the label for the control and again when
the screen reader reads the label text.

So long as the label reliably reads in all screen readers, I think
this is probably fine. But I don't think it's necessary. This
repetition is standard, so hiding the label with aria-hidden would be
atypical. Additionally, the repetition is generally not present when
accessing the form because the user will typically be navigating
through the form using the Tab key rather than reading the form from
top to bottom.

I suspect it could also cause some issues if the user were to search
for text on the page. The browser would direct them to the text (not
the labelled control), but the text would be hidden and unread. Yes, a
bit of a stretch, but something to consider whenever you use
aria-hidden on visible content.

Jared