ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications)

ARIA is a set of attributes defined by the W3C that makes web content and web applications more accessible to people with disabilities. It provides additional information about elements on the page, such as roles, properties, and states, which can be read by assistive technologies like screen readers. ARIA helps ensure that dynamic content and complex user interfaces are fully accessible.

ARIA attributes are what make complex, dynamic UI — dropdowns, modals, carousels, live data updates — actually usable for people relying on screen readers. Without ARIA, your beautifully animated modal is completely invisible to a blind user. For SaaS products going upmarket to enterprise, ARIA compliance is increasingly a procurement requirement under WCAG and Section 508.

When Gmail updates the unread count in your inbox dynamically, it uses ARIA live regions to announce the change to screen reader users — so they hear 'Inbox, 3 new messages' without needing to refresh the page.