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Re: WCAG guideline for too much ARIA

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From: Steve Green
Date: Dec 18, 2018 6:07AM

We test a lot of websites, and they fall pretty much into two categories:

a. They have no ARIA at all, even if they need it.

b. They have too much ARIA and it is mostly used incorrectly.

The latter are now the majority, and arguably they are less accessible than the former.

I agree with Glen's comments that you should use the minimum necessary amount of ARIA mark-up. In some cases, the superfluous ARIA causes a WCAG non-compliance, so that clearly needs to be fixed. In other cases, the superfluous ARIA is valid but causes a bad user experience, usually because it results in too much unnecessary waffle. If the developers care about the user experience they will fix it, but I have encountered plenty of them who only care about WCAG compliance and won't fix usability issues like this (unless you tell them it's a WCAG non-compliance even though it isn't).

Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd


-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of Barry Hill
Sent: 18 December 2018 12:36
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: [WebAIM] WCAG guideline for too much ARIA

Hi all



I've come across a page where the devs have gone over the top with ARIA in an attempt to make a poor page accessible, but the ARIA is causing problems.
For example, there is a heading structure but the headings are not read out because the ARIA label takes presidence. It seems that the devs have gone through the page and worked out every instance where they might conceivably stick ARIA.



Is there a WCAG guideline that is relevant for the use of too much ARIA?



Thanks in anticipation.



Cheers



Barry





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