Accessible Name
What Is an Accessible Name?
The accessible name is what a screen reader says out loud when it reaches a control. For a button labeled Save, the accessible name is normally just Save. The problem appears with icon-only controls. A magnifying glass with no text has no name to announce, so the visitor hears button and has to guess whether it searches, zooms or opens a filter.
Where the Name Comes From
Assistive technology works through a set order of sources: an aria-labelledby reference, then an aria-label, then the visible text or a properly associated label element, then alternative text on an image inside the control, and only as a last resort the title attribute. The practical consequence is that adding an aria-label to a button that already has visible text replaces what the visitor sees rather than adding to it.
When the Name Does Not Match the Label
A control can have a name that is technically present and still wrong. A button reading Get started with an aria-label of Submit form creates a mismatch: a speech recognition user says "click get started" and nothing happens, because the software is listening for the accessible name. The visible text and the accessible name should agree, and where they differ the visible text should be contained within the name.
How It Affects Real Users
Take a data table where every row ends with a pencil icon. To a sighted visitor the meaning is obvious from position. To someone using a screen reader, the page reads button, button, button, twenty times over, with nothing to distinguish the row being edited. Naming each one, Edit invoice 4021 rather than Edit, turns an unusable table into a workable one.
Where Accessible Names Show Up in an Accessibility Review
Missing and unhelpful names are among the highest-volume findings in almost every audit, because icon buttons, links reading Read more, unlabeled form fields and search inputs are everywhere. Automated tools catch the outright missing ones reliably. Whether an existing name is actually useful, or matches what is on screen, still needs a person to judge.