Understanding ARIA Landmarks for WCAG 2.2 Compliance

Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) landmarks play a vital role in enhancing web accessibility, particularly in complex web applications. These landmarks provide users with assistive technologies (AT) a way to navigate content efficiently. By implementing ARIA landmarks, developers can ensure that their websites comply with the WCAG 2.2 guidelines and improve the user experience for individuals using screen readers.

What are ARIA Landmarks?

ARIA landmarks are attributes that define specific regions of a web page. They provide a semantic way for AT users to quickly navigate to important sections of the page without needing to read through all the content. For instance, defining a header, navigation, main content, and footer is crucial in structuring a web document.

Common ARIA Landmark Roles

Here are several common ARIA roles that can be implemented:

• role="banner": Identifies the header of the page.
• role="navigation": Denotes the navigation section of the website.
• role="main": Signifies the primary content area of the page.
• role="complementary": Used for content that is related to the main content but not essential.
• role="contentinfo": Represents the footer or additional information about the page.

Code Example

The following example demonstrates how to use ARIA landmarks in HTML:

<header role="banner">  
    <h1>Website Title</h1>  
    <nav role="navigation">  
        <ul>  
            <li><a href="#home">Home</a></li>  
            <li><a href="#about">About</a></li>  
            <li><a href="#services">Services</a></li>  
        </ul>  
    </nav>  
</header>  
<main role="main">  
    <article>  
        <h2>Welcome to Our Website</h2>  
        <p>This is the main content area where you will find the most relevant information.</p>  
    </article>  
</main>  
<footer role="contentinfo">  
    <p>Contact us at: [email protected]</p>  
</footer>

Advantages of Using ARIA Landmarks

Implementing ARIA landmarks provides several benefits:

• Improved navigation for users relying on keyboard or assistive technologies.
• Enhanced organization of content, making it easier for users to find information.
• Better compliance with WCAG 2.2 guidelines, leading to a more inclusive web experience.

How to Remediate Links with WP ADA Compliance Check

Manually tracking down hidden structural code fragments across a massive content catalog or a complex multi-author site can take dozens of tedious hours. Deploying a comprehensive tool like the WP ADA Compliance Check Plugin completely automates the process of auditing, reporting, and sometimes correcting critical web accessibility errors.

Automated Remediation

The plugin evaluates your database content against 83 thorough accessibility checks and automatically corrects 42 distinct error types. During deep site scans, it uncovers hidden errors and highlights the exact location of the issue, saving developers from manually hunting through the raw HTML editor.

Enforcing Pre-Publishing Safeguards

To ensure that new content modifications don’t break compliance, the plugin features robust Pre-Publishing Controls. If an editor tries to publish a page containing web accessibility errors, the plugin alerts the user or restricts publication. This content safeguard forces correction at the workflow source before the page goes live.

Getting Started

If you are not sure where to begin with web accessibility, start by using the WP ADA Compliance Check Free Web Accessibility Scanner to run a scan of your website. For a more integrated solution, WordPress website owners should also try the free WP ADA Compliance Check Basic plugin to automatically audit posts and pages for common compliance issues right from their dashboard.