Andrew's Digital Garden

How to compose effective and user-friendly accessible names

The quality of accessible names is super important for usability. Names without enough information reduce effectiveness while names that are too long reduce efficiency. Names that are hard to understand reduce both!

Convey function or purpose, not form - 'Close' is better than 'X'

Most important words first - Usually means a verb is the first word for actions, 'Edit John Doe' is better than 'John Doe, edit'.

Be concise - 1-3 words is usually sufficient

Do not include a WAI-ARIA role name in the accessible name - screen readers already convey role information separately

Unique names for elements unless they are identical - similar to [[20211206102038-aria-landmark-regions]]

[[a11y]]

How to compose effective and user-friendly accessible names