Transcript: How ARIA landmark roles help screen reader users

Leonie:

Hello, I'm Leonie and in this video we're going to take a look at ARIA document landmark roles.

Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) is a new specification from the W3C that helps to make websites and web applications easier to use by people with disabilities. Screen readers provide a range of shortcut keys that make it easier for people to move from one piece of content on a page to the next.

For example, with the JAWS screen reader you can use the L key to move from one list on the page to the next.

So here we move to the list in the banner area of the Nomensa homepage.

JAWS:

List of 2 items.

Leonie:

Next we move to a list that contains all the navigation links for the website.

JAWS:

List of 7 items.

Leonie:

Although it's a very convenient way of moving about the page, it doesn't really provide much information about the purpose of content when you reach it. ARIA landmark roles really help to bridge this gap.

JAWS uses the semi-colon key to move from one landmark on a page to the next. As each landmark area is reached, JAWS announces the purpose of the content it contains so we can move from the banner area of the page:

JAWS:

Banner landmark.

Leonie:

To the search area:

JAWS:

Search landmark.

Leonie:

To the navigation area:

JAWS:

Navigation landmark.

Leonie:

To the main content area of the page:

JAWS:

Main landmark.

Leonie:

And finally to the footer:

JAWS:

Content info landmark.

Leonie:

ARIA landmark roles are really simple to add to your page. There's a link in the video description area to an article to an article on the Humanising Technology blog that tells you everything you need to know about how to implement document landmark roles.