Building Accessible Web Applications with Ariakit
Web accessibility has become a crucial aspect of modern web development. With the diverse range of hearing, sight, and cognitive abilities among internet users, developers must prioritize removing communication and interaction barriers. In this article, we will explore Ariakit, an open-source, low-level component toolkit for building accessible web applications in React.
Prerequisites
Before diving into Ariakit, ensure you have a working knowledge of React and its concepts, as well as the latest version of Node.js installed on your machine.
What is Ariakit?
Ariakit provides a variety of UI components, such as Form, Dialog, Tab, Tooltip, and more, designed to rapidly build accessibility-driven web applications, UI libraries, and design systems. Its components follow WAI-ARIA recommendations and come with built-in accessibility features.
Installing and Integrating Ariakit
To get started with Ariakit, install it via npm or yarn by running the following command:
bash
npm install ariakit
Next, import Ariakit components into your React project and start building accessible web applications.
Understanding Ariakit’s Building Blocks
Ariakit consists of components and hooks. Each component accepts three types of props: options, attribute, and state.
- Options Props: Custom properties that affect the internal component’s behavior.
- Attribute Props: Actual HTML attributes.
- State Props: Attaches stateful hooks and variables to a component.
Additionally, components can accept an “as” prop, which is used to augment components by injecting other components or tags.
State Hooks
Ariakit provides a variety of state hooks that manage the state of components in your applications. These state hooks are tailored to specific use cases and can be used to handle state logic for various components.
Styling
Ariakit does not rely on any CSS library, allowing you to use any approach for styling components. You can use inline styles, modules, styled-components, or external UI libraries like Tailwind.
Using Ariakit Components
Ariakit’s components are exported by a high-level API, making them easy to use. Let’s explore how to use complex components like form, tab, select, and more.
Form
Ariakit’s form component comes with built-in accessibility features and provides some level of validation. To use the form component, import the necessary components and assign the useFormState hook to a variable.
Select
To add a select component to the form, import the necessary components and assign the useSelectState hook to a variable.
By following these steps, you can create accessible web applications using Ariakit’s components. With its extensive collection of components and state hooks, Ariakit is an excellent choice for building full-fledged web applications.
Getting Started with Ariakit
Start building accessible web applications with Ariakit today. Explore its documentation and examples to learn more about its components and features.