Accessibility and React Router

Let’s delve into creating an article about React Router and Accessibility. Ensuring that our web applications are accessible to all users, including those with disabilities, is crucial. In this article, we’ll explore how to use Reach Router, which comes with built-in accessibility features, to create accessible routes in a React application.

Accessibility-focused Routing in React with Reach Router

Introduction

As you may already know, a Single Page Application (SPA) is an application that has only one page and dynamically updates content upon user interactions. React allows us to build SPAs, and routers play a vital role in managing navigation within these applications. While React Router is a popular choice, we’ll focus on Reach Router, which offers several advantages, including accessibility benefits.

Reach Router vs. React Router

The main difference between React Router and Reach Router lies in their approach to accessibility:

1. Reach Router:

   • Developed by Ryan Florence (a co-author of React Router).

   • Comes with focus management built-in, making it more accessible out of the box.

   • Provides an elegant API for handling nested routing.

2. React Router:

   • Widely used and well-established.

   • Does not include built-in focus management.

   • Still a great choice but may require additional effort for accessibility.

Getting Started with Reach Router

Let’s dive into using Reach Router for basic routing in a React application.

Installation

First, create a new React project (if you haven’t already) and install Reach Router:

npm install @reach/router
# or
yarn add @reach/router

Basic Routing Example

We’ll create two components: Home and Dashboard. The goal is to switch between these components based on the user’s navigation.

1. Home Component:

    // App.js
    const Home = () => {
      return (
        <div>
          <h1>This is the home route</h1>
        </div>
      );
    };
   

2. Dashboard Component:

    // App.js
    const Dashboard = () => {
      return (
        <div>
          <h1>Dashboard</h1>
        </div>
      );
    };
   

3. Routing Setup:

    // App.js
    import { Link, Router } from "@reach/router";
   
    function App() {
      return (
        <>
          <div style={{ display: "flex", justifyContent: "space-evenly" }}>
            <Link to="/">Home</Link>
            <Link to="dashboard">Dashboard</Link>
          </div>
          <Router>
            <Home path="/" />
            <Dashboard path="dashboard" />
          </Router>
        </>
      );
    }
   

Conclusion

By using Reach Router, we not only achieve efficient routing but also ensure better accessibility for all users. Remember to test your application with screen readers and keyboard navigation to verify its accessibility.