WAI-ARIA: Accessibility Standard for Active Internet Applications

    WAI-ARIA (Web Accessibility Initiative - Accessible Rich Internet Applications) - the standard for accessibility of active Internet applications, defines approaches to making website content and Internet applications more accessible for people with disabilities. This article describes the problems that WAI-ARIA is dedicated to solving, as well as introduces the WAI-ARIA technical documentation package. The terminology used is described in the article "WAI-WCAG 1.0 Content Accessibility Standard 1.0", which was previously published on the hub .

    The application of the standard is especially effective for sites with dynamic content and advanced user interface controls developed using Ajax, HTML, JavaScript, and related technologies. Currently, some website features are not available for some users with physical disabilities, especially for people who rely on screen readers and those who cannot use the mouse. WAI-ARIA is setting new paths for providing functionality with helper programs. With WAI-ARIA, developers can create advanced web applications that are affordable and convenient for all users.

    How to make Ajax and related technologies available?

    More and more sites on the Internet use sophisticated and advanced systems, such as Javascript tree menus, to manage the page. To ensure access for people with physical disabilities, special browsers and assistive technologies need to interact with these control systems, however, the information that is required for this is not available on most sites today.

    Another example of a barrier to the normal use of the site’s capabilities is the drag & drop technique, which is inaccessible to users who are unable to control the mouse and have only a keyboard. Even relatively simple sites can be difficult to use if they require a huge number of keystrokes when operating with just one keyboard.

    Many Internet applications developed using Ajax (also known as AJAX), DHTML and other technologies create additional problems of access to information. For example, if the content of a page changes in response to user actions, after a certain period of time or in connection with sudden updates, then this new content may not be available to people using screen readers - blind or people with cognitive impairment.

    The WAI-ARIA standard allows you to solve these access problems by establishing ways to make all the necessary information about the site available to the helpers. Using the standard, even complex Internet applications can be made accessible and convenient for people with disabilities.

    Technical solutions

    Let's consider the principle of the WAI-ARIA standard more specifically. The WAI ‑ ARIA standard defines a set of HTML attributes that allow you to identify user-interacting functions, establish their relationship and current location. The standard describes new navigation techniques for highlighting areas and basic elements of the site’s structure, such as menus, main content, secondary content, and banner information. For example, using WAI-ARIA, developers can mark areas on pages, allowing users to easily navigate between areas using the keyboard without having to repeatedly press the Tab key.

    WAI-ARIA includes technologies for designating controls, AJAX active areas, events, and makeshift controls. WAI-ARIA techniques are applicable to buttons, drop-down lists, calendars, tree elements, etc.

    The WAI-ARIA standard provides site authors with:
    • Roles to describe the type of the active element, for example: "menu," "treeitem," "slider," and "progressmeter". for instance
    • Roles to describe page structure, for example: headings, areas, and tables.
    • Attributes for describing the state in which the control is located, for example, “checked” for the checkbox and “haspopup” for the menu.
    • Attributes for specifying active areas of the page that allow updates (for example, stock quotes), as well as the way these updates appear. For example, important updates may appear in a dialog box, while minor updates may appear directly on the page.
    • Attributes for dragging and dropping objects that describe portable resources and target locations in a document. Ability to control objects and events from the keyboard.
    An example of using attributes:
    onkeydown="return checkBoxEvent(event);"
    >
    A checkbox label


    WAI-ARIA Documents

    WAI-ARIA standard technical documents were developed by the Protocols and Formats Working Group (PFWG) , which is part of the W3C-WAI (World Wide Web Consortium Web Accessibility Initiative).

    The WAI-ARIA standard package of documents, which is now in draft form, contains the following documents (in English):
    Krosspost: Introduction to WAI-ARIA: active Internet application availability Standard
    Original in English

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