--- title: Barriers from Links with ARIA | daily.dev description: Testing reveals that using aria-label on links, aria-hidden within links, and splitting letters across span elements creates barriers beyond screen readers.... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/barriers-from-links-with-aria-1gi6b0uo0 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Barriers from Links with ARIA | daily.dev og:description: Testing reveals that using aria-label on links, aria-hidden within links, and splitting letters across span elements creates barriers beyond screen readers.... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/barriers-from-links-with-aria-1gi6b0uo0 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/1gI6b0uO0.png og:image:alt: Barriers from Links with ARIA og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Barriers from Links with ARIA **[Adrian Roselli](https://daily.dev/sources/adrianroselli)** · 5 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Testing reveals that using aria-label on links, aria-hidden within links, and splitting letters across span elements creates barriers beyond screen readers. Browser text-to-speech features (Edge Read Aloud, Chrome reader mode, Safari Speech) fail to announce aria-label values, skip aria-hidden content entirely, and struggle with letter-separated text. Chrome's reader mode even visually hides aria-hidden links. The key recommendations: avoid aria-label on links, don't use aria-hidden within links, and don't split words across elements. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [You Know What? Just Don’t Split Words into Letters](https://daily.dev/posts/you-know-what-just-don-t-split-words-into-letters-wtadji3u3) · Adrian Roselli · 3 upvotes · 0 comments - [ARIA and Real World Dangers](https://daily.dev/posts/aria-and-real-world-dangers-vly6zihld) · Dennis Deacon · 10 upvotes · 1 comments - [I Learned The First Rule of ARIA the Hard Way](https://daily.dev/posts/i-learned-the-first-rule-of-aria-the-hard-way-bf3esumgq) · CSS-Tricks · 210 upvotes · 12 comments --- Tags: [#webdev](https://daily.dev/tags/webdev), [#html](https://daily.dev/tags/html), [#accessibility](https://daily.dev/tags/accessibility) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/barriers-from-links-with-aria-1gi6b0uo0) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Barriers from Links with ARIA","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/barriers-from-links-with-aria-1gi6b0uo0","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/barriers-from-links-with-aria-1gi6b0uo0"},"datePublished":"2026-01-23T01:56:35.438Z","dateModified":"2026-01-23T01:56:59.086Z","description":"Testing reveals that using aria-label on links, aria-hidden within links, and splitting letters across span elements creates barriers beyond screen readers....","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/906d930ab8e5736da1192d81c347b32c?_a=AQAEulh","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/906d930ab8e5736da1192d81c347b32c?_a=AQAEulh","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Adrian Roselli","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Adrian Roselli","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--srPC5zE---/f_auto/v1710012549/logos/adrianroselli","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/adrianroselli"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/barriers-from-links-with-aria-1gi6b0uo0","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"webdev,html,accessibility","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Adrian Roselli","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/adrianroselli"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Barriers from Links with ARIA"}]} ```