For content-oriented web sites, you're correct. There are even workarounds for the often-discussed problem of image tags without ALT attributes, so IMO that one

For content-oriented web sites, you're correct. There are even workarounds for the often-discussed problem of image tags without ALT attributes, so IMO that one isn't a big deal. Rich web applications are more challenging, since they often invent their own UI widgets (or build on top of toolkits that do this), in addition to or even instead of using standard links and form controls. For these, the W3C has a standard called Accessible Rich Internet Applications (http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/aria http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/aria). But in my experience, ARIA is often subject to misinterpretation by the browser, the assistive technology, the application/toolkit developer, or some combination of the three.