Maximizing compatibility with current and future user agents.
The Robust principle ensures that the sight, sound, and touch provided by your interface remain functional across the vast landscape of devices and browsers. It is the technical guarantee that your accessibility efforts won't break when a user upgrades their software or switches to a different assistive tool.
Maximize compatibility with current and future user agents, including assistive technologies. This guideline requires high-quality code that follows standard conventions so that screen readers can accurately interpret the "Sound" of your document.
Primary Implementation: Ensuring that custom components have valid Names, Roles, and Values that assistive technology can programmatically determine and track.
Review Compatibility & Parsing Standards
The easiest way to be Robust is to follow HTML standards. Browser manufacturers and assistive technology developers spend millions of dollars ensuring that standard elements—like <button>, <nav>, and <input>—work everywhere. When you "roll your own" components with <div> and <span>, you inherit the responsibility of manually rebuilding that robustness.