Practical ARIA Use in Drupal: What to Use, When, and Why

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Mike Herchel, lead developer at Dripyard and maintainer of Drupal’s Olivero theme, offers a practical guide to using ARIA attributes effectively within Drupal themes. Emphasizing the accessibility maxim “don’t use ARIA unless you need to,” Herchel explains how to extend native HTML semantics responsibly to improve screen reader interactions and UX. Common attributes covered include aria-expanded for dropdowns, aria-label and aria-labelledby for landmarks and icon-only links, and ARIA roles like role="dialog" and role="group" for modals and carousels.

Herchel also clarifies Drupal-specific conventions, such as built-in support for <button> menus and the legacy pairing of semantic HTML with redundant roles in core. He encourages teams to modernize by removing outdated role attributes, and to test behaviors like visibility toggling and keyboard focus states thoroughly. This article balances tactical implementation tips with broader accessibility philosophy—ideal for themers refining ARIA use in Drupal projects.

Reference: The most commonly used ARIA attributes on Drupal sites by Mike Herchel, Dripyard (3 September 2025)

Accessibility

Theming

Frontend

Best Practices

Drupal Core

Drupal

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