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ARIA in Practice

ARIA in Practice

Learn the small set of ARIA you actually need — and the larger set you should avoid. Eight lessons grounded in real screen-reader behavior.

~ 130 min·8 lessons·updated apr 2026

What you'll learn


Lessons

Read in order. Each lesson stands on its own, but the order is deliberate.

8 lessons · ~130 min total

  1. 01
    The five rules of ARIA
    Including the rule everyone forgets: no ARIA is better than bad ARIA.
    14 min
  2. 02
    Roles, states, and properties
    The three categories. Why aria-disabled is not the same as disabled.
    17 min
  3. 03
    Naming and describing
    aria-label, aria-labelledby, aria-describedby, and how the accessible name is computed.
    17 min
  4. 04
    Live regions
    Announcing dynamic changes. Polite, assertive, status, alert, atomic.
    17 min
  5. 05
    Hiding content thoughtfully
    aria-hidden vs hidden vs display:none vs .visually-hidden.
    15 min
  6. 06
    Common widget patterns
    Fake buttons, custom checkboxes, disclosure, and the tab pattern.
    17 min
  7. 07
    The composite widgets
    Comboboxes, listboxes, tree views, grids — and why they're hard.
    18 min
  8. 08
    Reading the ARIA Authoring Practices Guide
    How APG is structured, and when a pattern is a starting point — not a rule.
    15 min

Prerequisites

  • · accessibility-foundations or equivalent
  • · keyboard-and-focus or equivalent
  • · Comfortable with HTML and CSS

After this, try