---
title: "Fixing my tooltip accessibility mistake"
url: https://daily.dev/posts/fixing-my-tooltip-accessibility-mistake-xabm2iz7t
source_url: https://jakearchibald.com/2026/my-tooltip-a11y-mistake
type: article
source: "Jake Archibald"
published: 2026-07-28T12:08:26.158Z
updated: 2026-07-29T12:18:00.932Z
tags: ["accessibility"]
reading_time: 4
upvotes: 7
comments: 0
language: en
---

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# Fixing my tooltip accessibility mistake

**[Jake Archibald](https://daily.dev/sources/jakearchibald)** · 4 min read · 7 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

A web developer shares an accessibility mistake made when building a tooltip for an icon-only button. The error was removing aria-label and relying solely on aria-describedby, which provides additional description but not an accessible name. Without an accessible name, screen readers like JAWS incorrectly announced nearby sibling elements. The fix was switching to aria-labelledby, which provides the accessible name from the tooltip element. Key takeaways: always ensure interactive elements have an accessible name, and test with multiple screen readers rather than just one.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://jakearchibald.com/2026/my-tooltip-a11y-mistake>

---

Tags: [#accessibility](https://daily.dev/tags/accessibility)

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