diff --git a/src/components/views/elements/AccessibleButton.js b/src/components/views/elements/AccessibleButton.js
index 19150682f01..06c440c54e9 100644
--- a/src/components/views/elements/AccessibleButton.js
+++ b/src/components/views/elements/AccessibleButton.js
@@ -67,8 +67,8 @@ export default function AccessibleButton(props) {
     restProps.ref = restProps.inputRef;
     delete restProps.inputRef;
 
-    restProps.tabIndex = restProps.tabIndex === undefined ? "0" : restProps.tabIndex;
-    restProps.role = restProps.role === undefined ? "button" : restProps.role;
+    restProps.tabIndex = restProps.tabIndex || "0";
+    restProps.role = "button";
     restProps.className = (restProps.className ? restProps.className + " " : "") +
                           "mx_AccessibleButton";
 
diff --git a/src/components/views/elements/Flair.js b/src/components/views/elements/Flair.js
index 7d3d298804a..aa629794bab 100644
--- a/src/components/views/elements/Flair.js
+++ b/src/components/views/elements/Flair.js
@@ -45,18 +45,12 @@ class FlairAvatar extends React.Component {
         const tooltip = this.props.groupProfile.name ?
             `${this.props.groupProfile.name} (${this.props.groupProfile.groupId})`:
             this.props.groupProfile.groupId;
-
-        // Note: we hide flair from screen readers but ideally we'd support
-        // reading something out on hover. There's no easy way to do this though,
-        // so instead we just hide it completely.
         return <img
             src={httpUrl}
             width="16"
             height="16"
             onClick={this.onClick}
-            title={tooltip}
-            aria-hidden={true}
-        />;
+            title={tooltip} />;
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/src/components/views/messages/MessageTimestamp.js b/src/components/views/messages/MessageTimestamp.js
index 5bfdc1bc263..0bbb3f631e3 100644
--- a/src/components/views/messages/MessageTimestamp.js
+++ b/src/components/views/messages/MessageTimestamp.js
@@ -23,17 +23,12 @@ export default class MessageTimestamp extends React.Component {
     static propTypes = {
         ts: PropTypes.number.isRequired,
         showTwelveHour: PropTypes.bool,
-        ariaHidden: PropTypes.bool,
     };
 
     render() {
         const date = new Date(this.props.ts);
         return (
-            <span
-                className="mx_MessageTimestamp"
-                title={formatFullDate(date, this.props.showTwelveHour)}
-                aria-hidden={this.props.ariaHidden}
-            >
+            <span className="mx_MessageTimestamp" title={formatFullDate(date, this.props.showTwelveHour)}>
                 { formatTime(date, this.props.showTwelveHour) }
             </span>
         );
diff --git a/src/components/views/rooms/EventTile.js b/src/components/views/rooms/EventTile.js
index 3c7f3deec9a..78e98a81330 100644
--- a/src/components/views/rooms/EventTile.js
+++ b/src/components/views/rooms/EventTile.js
@@ -32,7 +32,6 @@ import withMatrixClient from '../../../wrappers/withMatrixClient';
 import dis from '../../../dispatcher';
 import SettingsStore from "../../../settings/SettingsStore";
 import {EventStatus} from 'matrix-js-sdk';
-import MatrixClientPeg from "../../../MatrixClientPeg";
 
 const ObjectUtils = require('../../../ObjectUtils');
 
@@ -546,50 +545,6 @@ module.exports = withMatrixClient(React.createClass({
         const isRedacted = isMessageEvent(this.props.mxEvent) && this.props.isRedacted;
         const isEncryptionFailure = this.props.mxEvent.isDecryptionFailure();
 
-        // TLDR: Screen readers are complicated and can watch for new DOM elements, but not
-        // changes to DOM elements. As such, we hack a bunch of conditions together.
-        //
-        // Screen readers do not react well to aria attributes changing dynamically after
-        // parsing them. Although readers watch the DOM, they cannot react to aria-hidden
-        // going from true to false. To work around that, we check to see if the eventSendStatus
-        // is something worthwhile for us to read out. We specifically don't want to read
-        // out pending/queued messages because they'll be read out again when they are sent.
-        //
-        // There's a small annoyance with doing this though: if we can't change the aria attrs,
-        // we need to track the entry state for when the component mounts. As it stands, the
-        // EventTile is unmounted/mounted when going pending->sent, and then a simple properties
-        // change is made to mxEvent for sent->null (the final state). We abuse this cycle to
-        // mute the pending state and react on the sent state.
-        //
-        // However there's then a bug where readers don't read messages from other people (they
-        // enter the component as eventSendStatus of null) - to counteract this, we look for a
-        // transaction_id under the unsigned object of the event. According to the spec, we can
-        // use this to determine if an event was sent by us (as it's bound to the access token
-        // which sent the event). This allows us to do a few checks on whether to speak:
-        //  * If the event was sent by our user ID and the eventSendStatus is 'sent', then speak.
-        //    We cannot check the transaction_id at this point because it is undefined. We can
-        //    make the assumption that 'sent' means this exact device is handling it though.
-        //  * If the event was sent by our user ID and the eventSendStatus is falsey (null), then
-        //    only speak if the event was not sent by us (no transaction_id).
-        //  * If the event was not sent by our user ID then speak.
-        //
-        // Note: although NVDA (a screen reader) does react to aria-hidden changing, it does so
-        // in a horrible way. Because multiple properties and DOM elements are changing, it reads
-        // the message twice when we limit the 'should speak' checks to just 'if eventSendStatus
-        // is null'. This is part of the reason for the complexity above.
-        //
-        // Hopefully all of that leads to us not reading out messages in duplicate or triplicate.
-        const sentByMyUserId = this.props.mxEvent.getSender() === MatrixClientPeg.get().getUserId();
-        const sentByThisDevice = !!this.props.mxEvent.getUnsigned()["transaction_id"];
-        let screenReaderShouldSpeak = false;
-        if (!isSending) {
-            if (this.props.eventSendStatus === 'sent') {
-                screenReaderShouldSpeak = sentByMyUserId;
-            } else if (!this.props.eventSendStatus) {
-                screenReaderShouldSpeak = !sentByMyUserId || !sentByThisDevice;
-            }
-        }
-
         const classes = classNames({
             mx_EventTile: true,
             mx_EventTile_isEditing: this.props.isEditing,
@@ -646,13 +601,9 @@ module.exports = withMatrixClient(React.createClass({
         if (this.props.mxEvent.sender && avatarSize) {
             avatar = (
                     <div className="mx_EventTile_avatar">
-                        <MemberAvatar
-                            member={this.props.mxEvent.sender}
+                        <MemberAvatar member={this.props.mxEvent.sender}
                             width={avatarSize} height={avatarSize}
                             viewUserOnClick={true}
-                            aria-hidden={true} /* silence screen readers */
-                            buttonRole={null} /* trick screen readers into thinking this is not a button */
-                            tabIndex={null} /* trick screen readers into thinking this is not a button */
                         />
                     </div>
             );
@@ -683,12 +634,8 @@ module.exports = withMatrixClient(React.createClass({
             onFocusChange={this.onActionBarFocusChange}
         /> : undefined;
 
-        const timestamp = this.props.mxEvent.getTs()
-            ? <MessageTimestamp
-                showTwelveHour={this.props.isTwelveHour}
-                ts={this.props.mxEvent.getTs()}
-                ariaHidden={!screenReaderShouldSpeak}
-            /> : null;
+        const timestamp = this.props.mxEvent.getTs() ?
+            <MessageTimestamp showTwelveHour={this.props.isTwelveHour} ts={this.props.mxEvent.getTs()} /> : null;
 
         const keyRequestHelpText =
             <div className="mx_EventTile_keyRequestInfo_tooltip_contents">
@@ -826,13 +773,13 @@ module.exports = withMatrixClient(React.createClass({
                     'replyThread',
                 );
                 return (
-                    <div className={classes} aria-hidden={!screenReaderShouldSpeak}>
+                    <div className={classes}>
                         <div className="mx_EventTile_msgOption">
                             { readAvatars }
                         </div>
                         { sender }
                         <div className="mx_EventTile_line">
-                            <a href={permalink} onClick={this.onPermalinkClicked} aria-hidden={true}>
+                            <a href={permalink} onClick={this.onPermalinkClicked}>
                                 { timestamp }
                             </a>
                             { this._renderE2EPadlock() }
diff --git a/src/components/views/rooms/ReadReceiptMarker.js b/src/components/views/rooms/ReadReceiptMarker.js
index 4025a368316..2f7a599d95e 100644
--- a/src/components/views/rooms/ReadReceiptMarker.js
+++ b/src/components/views/rooms/ReadReceiptMarker.js
@@ -211,13 +211,11 @@ module.exports = React.createClass({
                 <MemberAvatar
                     member={this.props.member}
                     fallbackUserId={this.props.fallbackUserId}
+                    aria-hidden="true"
                     width={14} height={14} resizeMethod="crop"
                     style={style}
                     title={title}
                     onClick={this.props.onClick}
-                    aria-hidden={true} /* silence screen readers */
-                    buttonRole={null} /* trick screen readers into thinking this is not a button */
-                    tabIndex={null} /* trick screen readers into thinking this is not a button */
                 />
             </Velociraptor>
         );