Visual ARIA Refresh and Basic How To

Visual ARIA Refresh and Basic How To

For those already familiar with Visual ARIA, this will be nothing new. However in recent years we have had a lot of new people come into the industry, so I thought it might be good to add this quick note for those who are new.

First, if you don’t know what ARIA is in the field of accessible web development, it would probably be good to read up on it.

Visual ARIA allows engineers, testers, educators, and students to physically observe ARIA usage within web technologies, including ARIA structural, live region, and widget roles, proper nesting and focus management, plus requisite and optional supporting attributes to aid in development.

The reason why this is important, is because ARIA usage is invisible and typically undetectable by sighted developers and users. Visual ARIA was created to provide a means for seeing where and how ARIA is being used within web technologies, both for identification and training.

In recent years, thanks to Laurence Lewis, the Visual ARIA Chrome Extension has become the most powerful version of this utility, which I highly recommend. It includes the ability to filter out extraneous ARIA roles so that you can focus on specific implementations, which is extremely useful.

For a more comprehensive guide regarding usage and color coding, view Instructions for Use.

Happy coding!