Screen Readers do not expose SplitText
Author: aardrianCreated Feb 5, 2026Updated Feb 8, 2026
The "Screen Reader Accessibility" section on the SplitText page claims support for screen readers but misses some important caveats.
Specifically the "Built-in Aria*" section talks about using aria-label and applies it to an <h2> in the example code.
The SplitText animation demo, however, use a <div>. It seems reasonable a user would not always apply SplitText to a heading and might use code from the demo.
So here are the challenges:
- The demo uses a
<div>, which in the HTML AAM maps to the generic role. - The
genericrole does not allow itself to be named by the author — which meansaria-labelis prohibited on it. - The demo uses headings, which allow
aria-label, but without any explanation why. - Further,
aria-labelmay not auto-translate for users. - The page also doesn't mention WCAG SC 2.5.3 Label in Name risks when
aria-labelis applied to any control (such as a button, though it does address links by duplicating text).
My suggested changes:
- Identify which HTML elements / ARIA roles support
aria-label. - Counsel against using any that don't.
- Warn of auto-translation risks.
- Warn against using on any interactive control.
I also performed screen reader testing against the linked demo:
| Pairing | Works? |
|---|---|
| NVDA / Firefox | yes |
| JAWS / Chrome | no |
| Narrator / Edge | no |
| VO macOS / Safari | no |
| Orca / Firefox | no |
| TalkBack / Chrome | yes |
| TalkBack / Firefox | no |
| VO iPadOS / Safari | no |
The YouTube video embedded on the page shows a screen reader demo, but without knowing which screen reader and browser pairing was used, I tried a few.
Source: greensock/GSAP