ARIA & Web Accessibility: What Your Brewery Needs To Know For A Better User Experience

Brewery Patron happy she can actually interact with your website.

We have written several blogs about this subject and will continue to do so in hopes that web accessibility becomes the norm in this industry. As a Brewery Owner, you have the power to make a difference by making your websites accessible so that everyone can use them and enjoy your content. Web accessibility is a crucial aspect of website design that ensures that people with disabilities can access and use the web. According to a recent study by WebAIM, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving web accessibility, 50 errors per page were detected on average across the top 1,000,000 home pages on the web. This highlights the need for website owners to take web accessibility seriously.

It is important to note that web accessibility is not only a legal requirement but also a moral obligation. In the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires businesses to make their websites accessible to people with disabilities. By making your websites accessible, you’re not only complying with the law but also ensuring that everyone can access your content.

ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) is a set of attributes that can be added to HTML elements to make them more accessible to people with disabilities. ARIA can help make dynamic content more accessible by providing additional information about the content and its behavior. By using ARIA, website owners can improve the accessibility of their websites and ensure that everyone can access their content.

Here are some of the most common ARIA attributes that can be used to make web content more accessible on your websites:

1. aria-checked: This attribute is used to indicate whether checkboxes and radio buttons are currently checked or not.

2. aria-current: This attribute is used to indicate the current page within breadcrumbs or pagination.

3. aria-describedby: This attribute is used with the ID of an element to add more information to a form field in addition to its label.

4. aria-label: This attribute applies a label to the element you place it on that is only visible to assistive technologies.

5. aria-hidden: This attribute hides an element from assistive technologies.

6. aria-disabled: This attribute indicates that an element is disabled.

7. aria-live: This attribute indicates that an element is live and should be announced by assistive technologies.

In addition to ARIA attributes, there are many other accessibility features that you should consider for your website such as keyboard navigation, alt text, color contrast, meaningful links, semantic HTML, scalable text, minimal animations and visual effects.

By making your website accessible, you’re not only complying with legal requirements but also ensuring that everyone can access your content.