diff --git a/DESIGN.md b/DESIGN.md
index 9c2eae5..4bb950c 100644
--- a/DESIGN.md
+++ b/DESIGN.md
@@ -174,13 +174,12 @@ not yet found, violet (`--status-airing`) for downloading, neutral for
 untracked. The word stays present in every chip, so state survives with colour
 removed.
 
-**Amendment (#253):** a drawn check glyph is a shape, not only a hue, so it
-survives the same greyscale read a word does — `mediaStateChip`'s `available`
-state is a check glyph instead of the word, word kept in the chip's
-`aria-label`. The word-stays-present rule otherwise stands as written, for
-every chip whose state is a word with no unambiguous glyph — which is every
-status chip this section lists. The exception is scoped to `mediaStateChip`,
-not to the derived-status chips above.
+One state is exempt: a file being on disk is drawn as a check glyph rather
+than the word `available`, with the word on the chip's `aria-label`. A drawn
+check is a shape, not only a hue, so it survives the greyscale read the rule
+exists to protect. The exemption is that narrow — every other state, and every
+derived-status chip above, keeps its word, because no unambiguous glyph stands
+in for `incomplete` or `waiting`.
 
 Season 0 is invisible to all of it: derived status ignores season 0 episodes
 entirely, so a manually wanted special cannot pin a series at `incomplete` or
diff --git a/web/src/main.ts b/web/src/main.ts
index dc66dc4..502055c 100644
--- a/web/src/main.ts
+++ b/web/src/main.ts
@@ -757,6 +757,9 @@ function mediaStateChip(state: string, wanted: boolean): HTMLSpanElement {
   if (state === "available") {
     return chip("", (span) => {
       span.replaceChildren(icon("check"));
+      // a bare span's aria-label is not reliably exposed; role="img" is what
+      // makes the word reachable once the glyph replaced it
+      span.setAttribute("role", "img");
       span.setAttribute("aria-label", state);
       span.dataset.movieState = state;
       span.dataset.wanted = String(wanted);