Purpose of ARIA to Describe Behavior and Features

• Provide an interoperable way to describe the features of custom widgets:
  • Role: Describes the type of widget, which implies the keyboard interaction.
  • Properties and States: Describing features like "expandable", "checked" or "selected".
  • Language independence: Roles, properties and states can be translated by the operating systems and assistive technologies to local languages.
  • Labeling: How to label the features of the widget and its components (e.g. accessible name).
  • Relationships: How different components relate to each other (e.g. descriptions, controls, owns).
  • Grouping: Groups of related components (e.g. lists, menus, trees, tab panels).
• Define markup mappings to accessibility APIs:
  • ATK/AT-SPI (Linux/Unix)
  • Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) + IAccessible2
  • Microsoft UI Automate
  • MacOS Accessibility API