1. Introduction

1.1 Goal of the Tutorial

The goal of this tutorial is to help you understand the process of testing and validating Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) implementations. ARIA provides a way to make web content and web applications more accessible to people with disabilities.

1.2 Learning Outcomes

By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to:

• Understand the importance of ARIA compliance
• Utilize various tools to test and validate ARIA implementations
• Debug and fix common ARIA-related issues

1.3 Prerequisites

Basic understanding of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and ARIA standards is required. Some familiarity with web accessibility principles would be helpful.

2. Step-by-Step Guide

2.1 Understanding ARIA

ARIA stands for Accessible Rich Internet Applications. It's a set of attributes that help enhance the accessibility and interoperability of web content and applications.

2.2 Testing Tools

There are numerous tools available for testing ARIA implementations:

• AXE: This is a free, open-source tool that tests your website's accessibility.
• WAVE: This is a web accessibility evaluation tool that provides visual feedback about the accessibility of your web content.

2.3 Validating ARIA

Validation ensures that your ARIA roles, states, and properties are used correctly. You can use the ARIA Validator extension for this purpose.

3. Code Examples

3.1 Example 1: Testing with AXE

<!-- This is a simple HTML structure with ARIA attributes -->
<div role="main" aria-labelledby="welcome">
  <h1 id="welcome">Welcome to our website!</h1>
  <p>We hope you find it accessible and easy to use.</p>
</div>

To test this with AXE:

1. Install the axe-core npm package.
2. Run the axe.run function on your HTML.

var axe = require('axe-core');
var html = '...'; // your HTML
axe.run(html, function(err, results) {
  console.log(results.violations);
});

3.2 Example 2: Validating with ARIA Validator

For validation, you can use the ARIA Validator extension for Chrome.

1. Install the extension.
2. Navigate to your web page.
3. Click on the extension icon to validate your page.

4. Summary

In this tutorial, we've explored the importance of ARIA compliance, discussed various testing tools like AXE and WAVE, and learned how to validate our ARIA implementations with the ARIA Validator extension.

5. Practice Exercises

5.1 Exercise 1: Basic ARIA Testing

Create a simple web page with ARIA attributes and test it using AXE.

5.2 Exercise 2: ARIA Validation

Add some incorrect ARIA roles, states, and properties to your page from Exercise 1. Use the ARIA Validator to identify the errors.

Solutions

Solution to Exercise 1

Here's a simple web page:

<div role="main" aria-labelledby="welcome">
  <h1 id="welcome">Hello, World!</h1>
</div>

Testing with AXE should yield no violations.

Solution to Exercise 2

Adding incorrect ARIA attributes:

<div role="main" aria-labelledby="nonexistent">
  <h1 id="welcome">Hello, World!</h1>
</div>

ARIA Validator will show an error because aria-labelledby refers to an id that doesn't exist.