ARIA, anti-patterns, and you

# ARIA, anti-patterns, and you Source: [https://dbushell.com/2026/06/26/aria-anti-patterns-and-you/](https://dbushell.com/2026/06/26/aria-anti-patterns-and-you/) Friday 26Jun2026 Please take a minute to understand what[ARIA](https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/aria/)is and is not\. ARIA and especially the[ARIA Authoring Practices Guide \(APG\)](https://www.w3.org/WAI/ARIA/apg/)are commonly misunderstood\. I read an article[the other day](https://dbushell.com/notes/2026-06-24T05:31Z/)that had this facepalm moment: > And with modern LLM agents, turning a spec into working code is surprisingly fast\. Point the agent at the APG pattern, describe your component’s markup, and get a solid first draft you can refine and test\. This is worrying, and the use of “LLM agents” isn’t the worst part\! The APG is**not**a how\-to guide of ‘best practices’ for building accessible websites\. It exists to demonstrate how the ARIA specification should work in theory — regardless of support and regardless of whether more accessible, non\-ARIA patterns exist \(they do\)\. As Eric Bailey notes — > The guide was originally authored to help demonstrate ARIA’s capabilities\. As a result, its code examples near\-exclusively, overwhelmingly, and disproportionately favor ARIA\. [What I Wish Someone Told Me When I Was Getting Into ARIA](https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2025/06/what-i-wish-someone-told-me-aria/#the-downsides)\- Eric Bailey — which makes sense, because: > Browser and assistive technology developers can thus utilize code in this guide to help assess the quality of their support for ARIA 1\.2\. [Read Me First](https://www.w3.org/WAI/ARIA/apg/practices/read-me-first/#:~:text=Except%20in%20cases,for%20ARIA%201.2.)\- ARIA Authoring Practices Guide \(APG\) Even if ARIA was fully supported \([it’s not](https://a11ysupport.io/)\) the APG still wouldn’t be a ‘best practice’ guide\. ‘Best practice’ is not using ARIA at all\. > If you can use a native HTML element or attribute with the semantics and behavior you require**already built in**, instead of re\-purposing an element and adding an ARIA role, state or property to make it accessible,**then do so**\. [2\.1 First Rule of ARIA Use](https://www.w3.org/TR/using-aria/#rule1)\- Using ARIA, W3C APG exists in a vacuum to show off the ARIA spec\. The[button example](https://www.w3.org/WAI/ARIA/apg/patterns/button/examples/button/)includes this code, for crying out loud\! ``` <div tabindex="0" role="button" id="action"> Print Page </div> ``` I’m unaware of any circumstance where`<div role="button"\>`should ever be used over a`<button\>`\. Before you tell me you can’t edit your[React](https://jsx.lol/)component library, do the web a favour and delete your codebase\. In fairness, the button example has a[“Read This First”](https://www.w3.org/WAI/ARIA/apg/patterns/button/examples/button/#support-notice-header)disclosure — and guess what: they use a[`<details\>`element](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/Elements/details)and not the[disclosure pattern](https://www.w3.org/WAI/ARIA/apg/patterns/disclosure/)because the APG isn’t best practice\. It’s hard to blame developers for misusing ARIA and the APG\. I’ve been confused myself\. As W3C documentation goes, APG is rather sexy\. It’s a useful resource if you understand why it exists\. Misuse of ARIA has made the web less accessible\. > Increased ARIA usage on pages was associated with higher detected errors\. The more ARIA attributes that were present, the more detected accessibility errors could be expected\. [The WebAIM Million](https://webaim.org/projects/million/#aria)\- WebAIM ## TL;DR Avoid ARIA where ever possible\. Don’t point a freaking LLM at the APG\! I can’t believe I’m saying this but use[Google’s slop](https://dbushell.com/2026/05/20/google-just-spat-in-my-face/)if you absolutely refuse to learn/code yourself\. Apparently[OpenAI is throwing ARIA](https://adrianroselli.com/2025/10/openai-aria-and-seo-making-the-web-worse.html)at the web and seeing what sticks\. Ahhh\! I don’t know anymore, take some pride in your expertise? --- P\.S\. name an assistive technology that isn’t a screen reader\. Ain’t easy, is it? So don’t be casually punctuating with the word “test” like it’s some*get\-out\-of\-jail\-free*card for your dubious practice and advice\. [“Overview of Digital Accessibility Technologies”](https://vale.rocks/posts/digital-accessibility-technologies)by Declan Chidlow is a great help if you want to win this game at parties\.