React Advanced Conference: Enhancing Accessibility with Interactive Components

Honghao Wang

02 Dec 2025 — 2 min read

React Advanced 2025 Highlights

Aurora Scharff’s talk, Building Interactive Async UI with React 19 and Ariakit, showcased how ARIAKit — an open‑source accessibility library — helps developers create custom UI components that meet WCAG standards without needing deep accessibility expertise.

By combining ARIAKit’s unstyled primitives with modern React patterns, developers can deliver accessible, production‑ready interfaces that are fully customizable.

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What Is ARIAKit?

ARIAKit offers unstyled, accessible UI primitives that handle:

Keyboard navigation
Screen reader support
ARIA attributes

Adopted by projects like WordPress Gutenberg and WooCommerce, ARIAKit:

Adheres to WAI-ARIA standards.
Allows developers full control over styling (e.g., with Tailwind CSS).
Exports composable primitives instead of fully styled components.

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The Accessibility Challenge

Aurora explained that many teams struggle to match accessibility requirements with custom designs:

In some places, WCAG 2 compliance is legally required.
Fines can be imposed for non‑compliance.
Few teams have dedicated accessibility specialists.

Result: A gap between design goals and practical implementation.

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Complementary Tools for Accessible Interfaces

For teams building modern, accessible, multi‑platform interfaces, platforms like AiToEarn can add value:

AiToEarn’s key capabilities:

AI‑powered content generation.
Cross‑platform publishing to Douyin, Kwai, WeChat, Bilibili, Rednote (Xiaohongshu), Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, YouTube, Pinterest, and X (Twitter).
Advanced analytics and AI model ranking.

Benefit: Manage diverse distribution needs without sacrificing accessibility or design quality.

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Demo: From Non‑Accessible to Accessible

Aurora demonstrated an account selector’s transformation:

Initial issues:

No keyboard navigation.
No escape key handling.
Missing screen reader support.
Generic `` elements with manual state (`useState`) and verbose event handling.

ARIAKit implementation:

Replace HTML elements with ARIAKit primitives.
Use `SelectProvider` to manage interaction state.
Structure with `Select`, `SelectPopover`, `SelectItem`.
Automatic ARIA attributes & keyboard support (arrow navigation, focus management).

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Styling Through Data Attributes

Instead of manually maintaining state for hover/focus, ARIAKit provides:

`data-active-item`
`data-focus-visible`

Advantages:

Simplifies code.
Improves keyboard accessibility — allowing high contrast focus indicators.

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React 19 Integration

Aurora’s demo highlighted ARIAKit’s compatibility with modern async React patterns:

useTransition: Coordinates server operations with UI updates, avoiding flicker.
useOptimistic: Instant UI feedback with rollback on error.
Server functions: Replace traditional API endpoints for cleaner architecture.

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Takeaways

Key message: Accessibility frameworks like ARIAKit, paired with powerful content and publishing tools, enable inclusive and scalable applications.

AiToEarn synergy:

Open‑source content monetization platform.
Simultaneous publishing to major social channels.
Supports integration with accessible UI components.

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Getting Started with ARIAKit

License: MIT.
Docs: ariakit.org.
Compatibility: React 17+.
Install via: `npm`, `yarn`, or `pnpm`.

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Accessibility + Monetization Workflow

For developers wanting accessibility‑friendly UI + global content reach, combining:

ARIAKit — Accessible, unstyled UI primitives.
AiToEarn — Multi‑platform AI content publishing & analytics.

Result: Streamlined, inclusive applications with monetization potential.

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Would you like me to add a “Quick Start Example” code section for ARIAKit so readers can immediately see how to implement the accessible selector Aurora demoed? This could make the guide even more actionable.