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Building a custom select component sounds simple until you realize how much stuff a native <select> actually does. Arrow key navigation. Focus trapping when the dropdown is open. Type-ahead search. Screen reader announcements when options change. Closing when the user presses Escape or clicks outside. Preventing scroll on the body while the dropdown is open.
That's just one component. Now multiply that by every interactive element in a design system. Tabs. Modals. Combo boxes. Date pickers. The complexity adds up fast, and most teams don't have the bandwidth to implement every ARIA pattern from scratch correctly.
React Aria Components aim to solve exactly this problem. They're a set of unstyled, accessible components built on top of React Aria hooks. They handle all the behavior, keyboard interactions, and accessibility attributes, while leaving the visual design entirely up to you. Here's how they work and why they might change how you think about component libraries.
There's an important distinction that trips people up at first. React Aria is the underlying library. It provides hooks like useSelect, useButton, and useDialog that handle accessibility logic. You call the hooks, spread the returned props onto your elements, and wire everything together yourself.
React Aria Components are a higher-level abstraction built on those hooks. They give you actual components with a declarative API. Instead of managing hook return values and merging props manually, you compose components like <Select>, <SelectButton>, <SelectPopover>, and <SelectItem>.
The components approach feels more natural in React. You're composing JSX elements rather than orchestrating hook outputs. The learning curve is gentler, and the resulting code is easier to read. But you still get full control over styling because the components come with zero visual opinions.
// React Aria hooks approach (lower level)
import { useSelect, useSelectState } from "react-aria";
function CustomSelect(props) {
const state = useSelectState(props);
const ref = useRef(null);
const { labelProps, triggerProps, menuProps } = useSelect(props, state, ref);
return (
<div>
<label {...labelProps}>{props.label}</label>
<button {...triggerProps} ref={ref}>
{state.selectedItem?.label || "Select an option"}
</button>
{state.isOpen && (
<ul {...menuProps}>
{props.items.map((item) => (
<Option key={item.id} item={item} state={state} />
))}
</ul>
)}
</div>
);
}
// React Aria Components approach (higher level)
import {
Select,
SelectButton,
SelectPopover,
SelectItem,
Label,
} from "react-aria-components";
function CustomSelect({ items }) {
return (
<Select>
<Label>Choose an option</Label>
<SelectButton />
<SelectPopover>
{items.map((item) => (
<SelectItem key={item.id}>{item.name}</SelectItem>
))}
</SelectPopover>
</Select>
);
}
The component version is dramatically simpler. The accessibility behavior is identical. All the ARIA attributes, keyboard handling, and focus management happen automatically.
Accessibility requirements are getting stricter. The European Accessibility Act takes full effect in 2025, requiring many digital products to meet specific standards. Lawsuits around web accessibility continue to rise in the US. And beyond legal pressure, there's the simple fact that accessible applications are better applications. They work for more people, on more devices, in more contexts.
If you've read our overview of WAI-ARIA authoring practices, you know the specifications are thorough but dense. Implementing a combobox pattern from scratch means reading through pages of expected keyboard behavior, focus management rules, and ARIA attribute mappings. It's easy to miss details that make the difference between a component that's technically compliant and one that's actually usable with a screen reader.
React Aria Components encode all of that specification knowledge. The team at Adobe, which maintains React Aria, has done the hard work of translating WAI-ARIA patterns into production-ready code. When you use their components, you inherit all of that research and testing.
The biggest mental shift with React Aria Components is that there are no styles. Zero. A <SelectButton> renders as a bare <button> element with no appearance. It has the correct ARIA attributes and keyboard handlers, but visually it's an unadorned browser-default button.
This is actually a feature, not a limitation. Design systems need visual control. A button in one application looks completely different from a button in another. React Aria Components give you several styling APIs to choose from.
The className prop accepts a function that receives render state, similar to how libraries like React Select handle styling:
<SelectButton
className={({ isOpen, isFocused }) =>
`select-button ${isOpen ? "open" : ""} ${isFocused ? "focused" : ""}`
}
/>
For teams using CSS-in-JS or Tailwind, there's also a style prop that works the same way. And a renderProps callback gives you access to all the internal state if you need full control.
The important thing is that you're styling semantic, accessible elements. The button is an actual <button>. The listbox is an actual <ul> with <li> children. Screen readers understand these natively. You're not rebuilding semantics with <div> soup and praying you got the ARIA right.
Comboboxes are notoriously complex. An accessible combobox needs to manage an input field, a dropdown list, option highlighting, and bidirectional communication between the input and the list. The WAI-ARIA pattern for comboboxes is one of the longest in the specification.
Here's how that looks with React Aria Components:
import {
ComboBox,
ComboBoxInput,
ComboBoxButton,
ComboBoxPopover,
ComboBoxItem,
Label,
} from "react-aria-components";
export default function SearchComboBox({ items }) {
return (
<ComboBox defaultItems={items}>
<Label>Search users</Label>
<div className="combobox-wrapper">
<ComboBoxInput className="combobox-input" />
<ComboBoxButton className="combobox-button">
<ChevronDownIcon />
</ComboBoxButton>
</div>
<ComboBoxPopover className="combobox-popover">
{({ item }) => (
<ComboBoxItem key={item.id} className="combobox-item">
{item.name}
</ComboBoxItem>
)}
</ComboBoxPopover>
</ComboBox>
);
}
That's it. The component handles filtering as the user types, arrow key navigation within the list, Enter to select, Escape to close, focus return when the popover closes, scroll management, and appropriate ARIA announcements for screen readers. All the behavior that would take days to implement from scratch comes for free.
The styling is completely open. You can make this combobox look like a Google search bar, a minimalist dropdown, or anything in between. The behavior stays consistent regardless of the visual design.
One area where React Aria Components surprised me is form support. Traditional headless UI libraries often leave form handling as an exercise for the developer. React Aria Components integrate directly with HTML form elements.
A <Select> or <ComboBox> inside a <form> will submit its value like a native form control. You can add validation using the isRequired prop, custom validation functions, or even integrate with libraries like React Hook Form through the component's ref.
import {
TextField,
TextFieldInput,
Label,
FieldError,
} from "react-aria-components";
function EmailField() {
return (
<TextField
name="email"
type="email"
isRequired
validate={(value) => {
if (!value.includes("@")) {
return "Please enter a valid email address";
}
}}
>
<Label>Email</Label>
<TextFieldInput />
<FieldError />
</TextField>
);
}
The FieldError component automatically displays validation messages and associates them with the input via aria-describedby. Screen readers announce the error when it appears. You get all of this without writing a single ARIA attribute yourself.
If you're using Next.js with React Server Components, you might wonder whether React Aria Components work on the server. The components themselves need client-side interactivity — keyboard handling, focus management, and state all require JavaScript. So you'll use them inside client components with the 'use client' directive.
But here's an interesting pattern. You can render the component structure on the server and hydrate the interactivity on the client. This means the HTML skeleton arrives in the initial response, and the JavaScript attaches event handlers afterward. Users see the interface immediately, and it becomes interactive as soon as the JavaScript loads.
// Server Component
import { ComboBoxWrapper } from './ComboBoxWrapper';
export default function Page() {
const items = await fetchItems(); // Server-side data fetching
return <ComboBoxWrapper items={items} />;
}
// Client Component
'use client';
import { ComboBox, ComboBoxInput, ComboBoxPopover, ComboBoxItem } from 'react-aria-components';
export function ComboBoxWrapper({ items }) {
return (
<ComboBox defaultItems={items}>
{/* ... */}
</ComboBox>
);
}
The data fetching happens on the server. The component markup streams to the client. The interactivity hydrates when the JavaScript bundle loads. It's a clean separation that works well with React Aria's architecture.
I won't pretend there's no learning curve. React Aria Components have their own patterns and conventions. The render props API takes some getting used to. The composable component model means you'll have more JSX nesting than you might with a traditional component library.
But the learning investment pays off. Once you understand the patterns for one component, they apply across the entire library. A Select works similarly to a ComboBox which works similarly to a Menu. The consistency reduces the cognitive load over time.
The documentation has improved significantly in recent versions. There are now interactive examples for every component, TypeScript types are thorough, and the accessibility explanations help you understand not just what the components do but why they do it.
These components shine when you're building a custom design system or an application with unique visual requirements. If your application looks like Bootstrap or Material UI, you're probably better off using those libraries directly. They've already solved the accessibility challenges for their visual style, and you'll move faster.
React Aria Components are also overkill for simple forms and basic interactions. A native <select> is perfectly accessible. A standard <button> doesn't need a component library. Use the platform where the platform is sufficient.
Where they earn their place is in custom, complex, interactive components. If you're building an autocomplete search, a date range picker, a drag-and-drop list, or a modal with focus trapping, the accessibility requirements are non-trivial. That's where having battle-tested implementations saves real time and reduces real risk.
Accessibility isn't a feature you add at the end. It's a property of how components are built from the start. If you've been following our series on React performance, from preventing unnecessary re-renders to TypeScript error handling, you know that thoughtful component architecture prevents problems before they appear.
The same principle applies to accessibility. Building on a foundation of accessible primitives means every screen, every feature, every refactor inherits those properties. You don't have to audit every new component because the building blocks are already compliant.
If you're newer to accessibility concepts, our beginner's guide to web accessibility covers the fundamentals. And our WCAG guidelines checklist provides a practical reference for compliance requirements.
React Aria Components sit at the intersection of all these concerns. They're well-architected React components that happen to be thoroughly accessible. The fact that accessibility is the primary feature rather than an afterthought is what makes them worth learning.
Building accessible custom components from scratch is hard. Not because the individual pieces are complex, but because the specification is thorough and the edge cases are numerous. Missing one ARIA attribute or keyboard handler can make a component frustrating or unusable for people who rely on assistive technology.
React Aria Components offer a pragmatic middle ground. They give you full visual control without requiring you to become an accessibility expert. They're well-maintained by a team that actively participates in web standards. And they work with the React you're already writing, including server components, TypeScript, and popular form libraries.
If you're starting a new design system or rebuilding an existing one, these components deserve a serious look. The accessibility work they do out of the box is extensive, and the styling flexibility means you won't have to fight against someone else's design decisions.
Need help building accessible React applications that work for everyone? Red Surge Technology specializes in creating inclusive web experiences with modern tools and frameworks. Reach out to discuss your next project.