This page documents user agent support notes for ARIA Techniques.
To improve accessibility, WAI-ARIA provides Web developers with the option to add the following semantic information to Web pages and rich Internet widgets which are then exposed to the browser:
Roles to describe the type of widget presented, such as "menu", "treeitem", "slider" and "progressbar."
Roles to describe the structure of the Web page, such as headings, regions, search areas and navigation areas.
Properties to describe the state widgets are in, such as "checked" for a check box, "haspopup" for a menu that renders a sub-menu or other popup and "expanded/collapsed" for a tree node.
Properties to define live regions of a page that are likely to get updates (such as stock quotes), as well as an interruption policy for those updates. Assistive technologies may present critical updates as soon as they are rendered. However, incidental updates are presented only after completing the current task. For example, a screen reader informs a user of an incidental update only after it finishes reading the current paragraph.
Properties for drag-and-drop that describe drag sources and drop targets
A method to provide keyboard navigation for rich internet widgets.
The combination of these features and the structural information conveyed by the DOM structure allow authors to produce an interoperable solution to assistive technologies. (Source: WAI-ARIA Overview)
User Agent support for WAI-ARIA varies, but overall support for WAI-ARIA is improving. Browsers which support WAI-ARIA map WAI-ARIA roles and properties to platform accessibility APIs.
Firefox 1.5 and Firefox 2.0 partially supports WAI-ARIA, however it requires the use of namespaces, and doesn't support the use of Liveregions.
Firefox 3+ contains better support for WAI-ARIA, including Liveregions.
IE8 partially supports WAI-ARIA.
JAWS 8 and Window-Eyes 5.5+ partially support WAI-ARIA.
Jaws 10+ supports WAI-ARIA.
FireVox, a self-voicing extension to Firefox, also supports WAI-ARIA via direct DOM access.
NVDA partially supports WAI-ARIA.
Using technologies in an Accessibility Supported way is required for conformance claims. Read more about Accessibility Support. The WCAG Working Group plans to review which WAI-ARIA techniques are sufficient when Accessible Rich Internet Application specifications reach W3C Recommendation status. Refer to WAI-ARIA Overview for the latest information on the status of WAI-ARIA.
See User Agent Support for WAI-ARIA for general information on user agent support.
IE 8 only supports aria-labelledby with a single id value and it partially supports aria-describedby.
See User Agent Support for WAI-ARIA for general information on user agent support.
See User Agent Support for WAI-ARIA for general information on user agent support.
See User Agent Support for WAI-ARIA for general information on user agent support.
See User Agent Support for WAI-ARIA for general information on user agent support.
Jaws V.11 and greater has complete support.
ChromeVox V.1 and greater has complete support
VoiceOver V.3 and greater supports
NVDA 2 supports Aria Describedby
Window Eyes as of V.7.
See User Agent Support for WAI-ARIA for general information on user agent support.
Screen reader testing as of October 2012
Not supported:
Win 7, IE 9, JAWS 13
Win 7, FF 13, NVDA 2012.2.1
Win XP, FF 15.0, NVDA 2011.3
Win XP, IE 8, SaToGo
Partial support (both link text and element referenced by aria-labeledby are read):
Win 7, IE9, NVDA 2012.2.1 (but Example 2 not supported)
Win XP, IE 8, NVDA 2011.3 (but Example 2 not supported)
Supported:
Win 7, FF 13, JAWS 13 (but Example 2 has only partial/buggy support: "Sales report 2012" is read twice)
Mac OS 10.5.8, VoiceOver
See full testing results for Example 1
See full testing results for Example 2
David tested on Aug 25, 2013... Example 2 and 3 are still not sufficiently supported.
Example 1 ok on JAWS, VoiceOver. NVDA ignores labelledby on an anchor
Example 2: JAWS 14 in FF, IE 10 read the entire paragraph for each link which is confusing and chatty. VoiceOver for Mountain Lion in Safari 6 same as JAWS. NVDA ignores labelledby on an anchor (unsuccessful implementation)
Example 3: JAWS 14 in FF, IE 10 read the entire paragraph for each link which is confusing and chatty, VoiceOver for Mountain Lion in Safari 6 OK. NVDA ignores labelledby on an anchor (unsuccessful implementation)
See User Agent Support for WAI-ARIA for general information on user agent support.
Jaws V.11 and greater has complete support.
ChromeVox V.1 and greater has complete support
VoiceOver V.3 and greater
See User Agent Support for WAI-ARIA for general information on user agent support.
Note: In order to support IE, the attribute tabindex="-1" may need to be provided on non-interactive elements that are referenced by aria-labelledby attributes. For more details see Using WAI-ARIA in HTML.
Full support:
WIN7 / FF16 / NVDA 2012.2.1 (Example 2: also reads column headers)
WIN7 / FF16 / JAWS 13 (Example 2: also reads column headers)
WIN7 / IE9 / JAWS 13
WIN XP /FF16 / NVDA 2011.3
iOS X / VoiceOver
Partial support:
WIN7 / IE9 / NVDA 2012.2.1 (Example 1: drops default text of text field: "Extend time-out to minutes edit selected 20")
Not supported:
WIN XP / IE8 / NVDA 2001.3 Example 1: Does not read text referenced by aria-labelledby ('20','minutes'): "Extend time-out to edit selected 20"
System Access To Go (IE8)
See User Agent Support for WAI-ARIA for general information on user agent support.
NVDA 2012.3 supports Example 1 with FF
As of March 2014, there is much wider accessibility support for the use of the alt attribute than for aria-labelledby. The use of the alt attribute is best practice and strongly encouraged. Especially for elements where the alt attribute can be used to provide text alternatives, authors must confirm accessibility support for aria-labelledby before relying on this technique in place of H37: Using alt attributes on img elements.
See User Agent Support for WAI-ARIA for general information on user agent support.
Jaws V.11 and greater has complete support.
ChromeVox V.1 and greater has complete support
VoiceOver V.3 and greater supports all landmarks except “form”.
NVDA 2 supports all landmarks except it will not support navigation to “application”
Window Eyes as of V.7 does not support ARIA landmarks.
See User Agent Support for WAI-ARIA for general information on user agent support.
Jaws 13 and higher supports this technique.
NVDA 2012.3 supports this technique.
See User Agent Support for WAI-ARIA for general information on user agent support.
See User Agent Support for WAI-ARIA for general information on user agent support.
Screen reader support varies depending on browser:
System Access To Go (IE8) does not recognise aria-label
Using NVDA with Firefox (FF), aria-label is only spoken on custom controls
Using NVDA with Internet Explorer (IE), aria-label is only spoken on native controls
JAWS has the best support of aria-label
Here are the results of some detailed testing:
JAWS 13 (WIN7, FF13)
Example 1: JAWS speaks aria-label of div set to contentEditable but not the content of the div (the word to be corrected)
Example 2: JAWS speaks aria-label: "close button"
Example 3: JAWS does not speak the aria-label, just says "button"
JAWS 13 (WIN7, IE9)
Example 1: JAWS speaks aria-label, but the content of div boxes is only spoken in Virtual PC cursor mode, not when tabbing to the divs
Example 2: JAWS speaks content of div box (focus is being moved to its beginning through the skip link) followed by aria-label: "close button"
Example 3: JAWS speaks the aria-label
NVDA 2011.3 (XP, FF13)
Example 1: NVDA speaks specified aria-label of div set to contentEditable, followed by announcing "section editable" and, for mis-spelled words, "spelling error"
Example 2: NVDA does not speak the aria-label, just "X button"
Example 3: NVDA does not speak the aria-label, just "button" (- and + are dropped, but this may be customizable in screen reader settings)
NVDA 2011.3 (XP, IE8)
Example 1: Browser focuses div contentEditable but apparently does not expose them to the accessibility API so NVDA does not speak associated contents of aria-label
Example 2: NVDA speaks the aria-label content, "button close", instead of the text included in the button (X)
Example 3: NVDA speaks the aria-label content
NVDA 2012.2.1 (WIN7, IE9)
Example 1: Same as under (XP, IE8): div contentEditable received focus but aria-label is not exposed to accessibilty API
Example 2: NVDA speaks aria-label "This is a div box button close" in browse mode and "close button" in focus mode
Example 3: Content of aria-label spoken
NVDA 2012.2.1 (WIN7, FF13)
Example 1: NVDA speaks specified aria-label for custom div set to contentEditable, followed by announcing "section editable" (but no announcement of mis-spelled words here)
Example:2 Does not speak aria-label of X-button
Example 3: NVDA does not speak aria-label for + and - button (- and + are dropped, but this may be customizable in screen reader settings)
System Access To Go (XP, IE8): In all three examples, SAToGo does not recognise aria-label
Example 1: SAToGo speaks "editable text" followed by the text in div contentEditable
Example 2: After activating Link, SAToGo speaks content of the pop-up div followed by "button X
Example 3: By default, SAToGo speaks "plus button" and "hyphen button" - not the content of aria-label
See User Agent Support for WAI-ARIA for general information on user agent support.
Updated July 16, 2013
Jaws V.11 and greater has complete support. IE10 JAWS 14. Speaks alt and then "press JAWS key + alt +r to hear descriptive text". IE 10 intermittent support, sometimes works, sometimes need to reload the page for JAWs to read it properly.
ChromeVox V.1 and greater has complete support?
VoiceOver V.3 and greater supports but replaces ALT text if both are present
NVDA 2 reads ALT text if both are present but not Describedby unless it is alone
Window Eyes as of V.7 ???.
See User Agent Support for WAI-ARIA for general information on user agent support.
Jaws V.11 and greater has complete support.
ChromeVox V.1 and greater has complete support
VoiceOver V.3 and greater supports ???
NVDA 2 supports Aria Describedby ???
Window Eyes as of V.7 ???.
See User Agent Support for WAI-ARIA for general information on user agent support.
This technique works with:
JAWS 13 / 14 with Internet Explorer 8 / 9, Firefox
NVDA 2012 / 2013 with Firefox
VoiceOver with Safari on OSX 10.7.4 on MacBook Pro but not on later versions like OSX 10.8. (This has been reported to Apple along with broken support for the HTML "title" attribute)
See User Agent Support for WAI-ARIA for general information on user agent support.
Jaws 13 and higher supports this technique.
See User Agent Support for WAI-ARIA for general information on user agent support.
Supports this technique:
OS X 10.8.4 + Safari + VoiceOver
iOS 6 & 7 + Mobile Safari + VoiceOver
Windows 7 + Firefox 20 + NVDA 2013.1
Windows 7 + Firefox 20 + JAWS 14
Windows 7 + IE 8 + JAWS 14 (aria-live=assertive ONLY)
Windows 7 + IE 7 + JAWS 14 (aria-live=assertive ONLY)
Does NOT support this technique:
Windows 7 + IE 8 + NVDA 2013.1 (NO support)
Support Notes:
Internet Explorer versions 7 through 11 do not support notifications as described in this technique when using role="alert". However, using aria-live="assertive" as described in example 1 does function correctly.
When using Firefox with JAWS and NVDA role=alert is announced as "Alert" and aria-live=assertive does not include that extra text. There is NO support for NVDA 2013.1 + IE 8. The third example uses BOTH role=alert & aria-live=assertive on the error container for wider UA/AT support working in all combinations listed.
There are different methods to display an alert or assertive live region on the page and depending on how you create the error container or inject the error messages determines if it will work in the more difficult browsers/screen reader combinations like IE 8 + JAWS 14 or VoiceOver + Safari.