Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) In Simple Terms

Introduction

Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) is a set of guidelines developed by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) to make it possible to provide an enhanced user experience for people with disabilities when using internet applications with assistive technologies. ARIA is an extra set of tools developers can implement into their web applications to directly communicate information to assistive technologies.

Recently there are many technical descriptions on ARIA, this article aims to explain what it is in general terms, and give you an idea of how and when to use it.

How AREA works

During the early years of the Internet a simple block of text or a form control was placed into a page, and browsers and assistive technologies knew how it works. As technology started to develop, more and more custom designed controls started to emerge. For example, a check box, which users were able to either check or uncheck did not use the default HTML code for a checkbox. Therefore, while it still looked like a check box, people who used a screen reader were not able to identify it, because screen readers were looking for something which originally existed, and they did not have a way to find out that this is a similar check box, which works just the same way. Also, many of these controls were increasingly more difficult to access with the keyboard, as many of the functionality was developed to be used by the mouse only.

ARIA gives developers a set of roles, states and properties to inject into their HTML code. Looking at the previous example, when a check box is designed, and by default, when the page loads it is checked, developers can arbitrarily pick the portion of the page where this check box is placed, and through ARIA, they can communicate to assistive technologies that this area from now on should be called a check box, should behave like a check box, and that it is currently enabled.

To illustrate it with another example, there are tree views which look like tree views. When clicking on the plus and minus signs, branches expand or collapse. When people use this tree view with a screen reader, very often they are not able to determine the state of the branches, or even the fact that it is supposed to behave like a tree view, and elements should be expandable or collapsible. Injecting ARIA into the code, screen readers will make the necessary announcement about the fact that it is a tree view, and will communicate the state of the branches, and any other relevant information.

ARIA, however, is not only used to mark up controls for screen readers. Another way of using it is providing information on continuously or periodically updated information. When a page dynamically updates data, for example in an e-mail client when new e-mails arrive, the number of items in the inbox could change. This is possible to do without reloading the page. With the help of ARIA, you can communicate this information to the user, explaining which portion of the screen was updated and allowing access to the newly updated information.

The above examples are there just to give a taste of what ARIA can do, the possibilities are practically endless.

Who needs ARIA

People with disabilities, who generally rely on assistive technologies, such as screen readers, screen magnification systems or voice recognition systems will be able to use the internet, especially emerging technologies much more efficiently when ARIA support will be implemented into new applications.

Businesses will be able to reach out to a much larger segment of population by adding ARIA to their applications without having to compromise on their design for accessibility considerations.

When do we need ARIA

ARIA should be used wisely in instances when it is truly necessary. Remember that with ARIA, you can add further information which will be communicated to people with disabilities through assistive technologies. Too much information only creates noise. Use ARIA when you develop your own controls, when your web site diverts from the usual, when you are using dynamic elements. There are certain instances where ARIA does not add anything to the user experience. For example, when you look at this article, all information is available and accessible to all assistive technologies, while it would be possible to force ARIA into this page, it would not make any sense.

Current problems with using ARIA

When we would like to make web applications accessible, we will need the following:

• Of course, a developer who understands ARIA
• A web browser which can interpret this accessible information
• An assistive technology software which can obtain the information from the web browser and communicate it to the end user

Currently, not all web browsers support ARIA and not all assistive technologies can make use of it. Then the question is, why using it?

ARIA promises to be a long-awaited solution for many accessibility issues on the internet. While it is not totally adopted yet, the new versions of at least the mainstream web browsers already support it. Also, new releases of assistive technologies provide ARIA support, and in many instances they work together with the software companies to synchronize the web browsers and assistive technologies.

It is expected that after an other cycle of releases of both browsers and assistive technologies, ARIA will be ready to be a standard for internet accessibility. In the meantime, it is worth using it, since on a daily basis more and more people use a combination of software technology which allows them to gain access to information provided by ARIA. Large companies, such as Yahoo! and Google already make the use of ARIA a standard practice in more and more of their web applications.