diff --git a/.changeset/dashboard-config-aria-retired-5852.md b/.changeset/dashboard-config-aria-retired-5852.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9ce2a42a1a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/dashboard-config-aria-retired-5852.md
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+---
+'@object-ui/types': minor
+---
+
+**Retired the designer-surface dashboard `aria` pair — `DashboardConfig.aria` and `DashboardConfigSchema.aria`** (objectui#5852).
+
+Both spellings are named verbatim above so a host can grep its own sources: the
+retired member is `aria`, on the TypeScript interface `DashboardConfig`
+(`@object-ui/types`, `designer.ts`) and on its Zod mirror `DashboardConfigSchema`
+(`@object-ui/types/zod`). It declared `{ label?: string; description?: string }`.
+
+**Why.** The spellings `label`/`description` match neither `@objectstack/spec`'s
+`AriaProps` vocabulary (`ariaLabel` / `ariaDescribedBy` / `role`) nor anything a
+renderer maps, so no read point could have consumed them even in principle.
+Re-measured on `main` at the retirement: zero `.aria` reads in
+`packages/plugin-designer/src`, `packages/plugin-dashboard/src` and
+`apps/console/src`; zero occurrences of either name anywhere in the `objectstack`
+repo; and `DashboardConfigPanel.tsx` — the panel the interface's own doc comment
+says it serves — imports neither name.
+
+**The two directions differ, and neither is a no-op:**
+
+- **TypeScript (a narrowed suggestion, not a compile break).** `DashboardConfig`
+  carries a `[key: string]: any` catch-all, so an existing `aria:` line still
+  compiles; what is gone is the editor suggestion and the false implication that
+  the key was part of the contract.
+- **Zod (a behaviour change — read this one).** `aria` is now an ADR-0049
+  retirement tombstone (`z.never().optional()`), following this package's
+  existing convention. Previously an authored `aria` was **accepted and
+  preserved** in `safeParse` output; it is now **refused by name**, with `aria`
+  in the issue path and a message telling the author to delete the key. A plain
+  deletion was deliberately not taken: `DashboardConfigSchema` is a bare
+  `z.object` with no `.strict()`, so deleting the key would have made an
+  authored `aria` **silently disappear** from the parsed output instead — a
+  quiet data loss in place of a loud refusal.
+
+**External caveat.** In-repo consumer count is zero, but that is not the npm
+count: `@object-ui/types` is published, and stored dashboard configuration is
+not reachable from this repo. A host that authored `aria` on a `DashboardConfig`
+document will now see a validation error naming the key where it previously saw
+a silently carried value. The remedy is to delete the key — it never reached a
+renderer.
diff --git a/packages/types/src/__tests__/dashboard-config.test.ts b/packages/types/src/__tests__/dashboard-config.test.ts
index d4b5c81d5a..48ab5f4abd 100644
--- a/packages/types/src/__tests__/dashboard-config.test.ts
+++ b/packages/types/src/__tests__/dashboard-config.test.ts
@@ -62,7 +62,11 @@ describe('DashboardConfig TypeScript Types', () => {
       headerActions: [
         { label: 'Export', action: 'export', icon: 'Download', variant: 'outline' },
       ],
-      aria: { label: 'Sales dashboard', description: 'Interactive sales overview' },
+      // `aria: { label, description }` REMOVED (objectui#5852): the member is
+      // gone from the `DashboardConfig` declaration. Kept here it would have
+      // gone on compiling through the interface's `[key: string]: any`
+      // catch-all while asserting the opposite of the contract — the
+      // green-wash objectui#5830 called out on the sibling member.
     };
     expect(config.widgets).toHaveLength(1);
     expect(config.widgets![0].type).toBe('metric');
@@ -199,10 +203,44 @@ describe('DashboardConfig Zod Validation', () => {
     expect(result.success).toBe(true);
   });
 
-  it('should validate aria accessibility attributes', () => {
+  // `should validate aria accessibility attributes` was FLIPPED, not deleted
+  // (objectui#5852). It asserted `success === true` for an authored `aria`.
+  // After the retirement a PLAIN DELETION would have kept it green — this
+  // schema is a bare `z.object` with no `.strict()`, so an undeclared key is
+  // accepted and silently stripped (measured; the same behaviour objectui#6068
+  // recorded). That green would have meant "nothing looked", which is why the
+  // mirror carries a `z.never()` tombstone instead and this pin now asserts the
+  // refusal by name.
+  it('refuses the retired `aria` key by name, with the removal message', () => {
     const result = DashboardConfigSchema.safeParse({
       aria: { label: 'Sales dashboard', description: 'Interactive overview' },
     });
+    expect(result.success).toBe(false);
+    if (result.success) return;
+    const issue = result.error.issues.find((i) => i.path.join('.') === 'aria');
+    expect(issue, 'no issue at path `aria`').toBeTruthy();
+    // The message is asserted, not just its existence: a `z.never()` with no
+    // `error` would refuse with zod's generic "expected never, received
+    // object", which names the key only via the path and tells the author
+    // nothing about what to do. The tombstone carries a real message.
+    expect(issue!.message).toMatch(/RETIRED \(objectui#5852\)/);
+    expect(issue!.message).toMatch(/delete the key/);
+  });
+
+  it('CONTROL: an arbitrary undeclared key is NOT refused — the red above is the tombstone, not strictness', () => {
+    // Without this control, the refusal above is equally consistent with the
+    // schema having become `.strict()`, which would refuse every unknown key.
+    const result = DashboardConfigSchema.safeParse({ objectui5852NotAKey: 'x' });
+    expect(result.success).toBe(true);
+    // ...and it is dropped from the output, which is exactly what a plain
+    // deletion of `aria` would have silently done to an authored value.
+    expect(result.success && 'objectui5852NotAKey' in result.data).toBe(false);
+  });
+
+  it('CONTROL: a legal config still parses green — the tombstone narrowed nothing else', () => {
+    const result = DashboardConfigSchema.safeParse({
+      title: 'Sales', columns: 12, showHeader: true,
+    });
     expect(result.success).toBe(true);
   });
 });
diff --git a/packages/types/src/designer.ts b/packages/types/src/designer.ts
index 9d21a20156..1d7ae5b6da 100644
--- a/packages/types/src/designer.ts
+++ b/packages/types/src/designer.ts
@@ -620,12 +620,29 @@ export interface DashboardConfig {
   }>;
 
   // -- Accessibility ---------------------------------------------------------
-
-  /** ARIA properties */
-  aria?: {
-    label?: string;
-    description?: string;
-  };
+  //
+  // `aria?: { label?, description? }` was DECLARED here until objectui#5852.
+  // It was never a contract: the spellings (`label`/`description`) match
+  // neither `@objectstack/spec`'s `AriaProps` (`ariaLabel` / `ariaDescribedBy`
+  // / `role`) nor anything a renderer maps, so no read point could have
+  // consumed it even in principle. Measured on `origin/main` at the retirement:
+  // zero `.aria` reads in `packages/plugin-designer/src`,
+  // `packages/plugin-dashboard/src` and `apps/console/src` (the same grep
+  // family finds the live `schema.aria` reads in `plugin-detail`'s
+  // `record-quick-actions.tsx` and `plugin-list`'s `ListView.tsx`), and zero
+  // occurrences of either name in the `objectstack` repo.
+  //
+  // `DashboardConfigPanel.tsx` — the panel this interface's own doc comment
+  // says it serves — imports `ConfigPanelSchema` from `@object-ui/components`
+  // and neither `DashboardConfig` nor `DashboardConfigSchema`, so the key
+  // documented an integration that does not exist.
+  //
+  // Note the `[key: string]: any` catch-all below still types an authored
+  // `aria` as `any`: this deletion removes the type-level SUGGESTION, not a
+  // key that ever rendered (same shape as objectui#5830 on
+  // `DashboardComponentSchema.aria`). The Zod twin does carry teeth — see the
+  // `z.never()` tombstone in `zod/complex.zod.ts`. Pinned by
+  // `__tests__/dashboard-config.test.ts`.
 
   /** Catch-all for additional properties */
   [key: string]: any;
diff --git a/packages/types/src/zod/complex.zod.ts b/packages/types/src/zod/complex.zod.ts
index 6435a5958f..cf2accb6f4 100644
--- a/packages/types/src/zod/complex.zod.ts
+++ b/packages/types/src/zod/complex.zod.ts
@@ -563,6 +563,18 @@ export const DashboardWidgetConfigSchema = z.object({
  * Dashboard Config Schema — Zod validator for DashboardConfigPanel data model.
  *
  * Validates the unified dashboard configuration used by create/edit workflows.
+ *
+ * The `aria` member is an ADR-0049 retirement tombstone (objectui#5852),
+ * following this package's convention (`data-display.zod.ts`
+ * `StaticTableColumnSchema`, the set `crud.zod.ts` `confirm` established):
+ * `z.never().optional()` REFUSES an authored value at parse time with the key
+ * named in the error path, rather than letting it be silently stripped the way
+ * an undeclared key would be on this non-`.strict()` object. Loud refusal is
+ * the ruled outcome — `aria` was accepted-and-preserved for as long as it was
+ * declared, so a plain deletion would have converted a preserved key into a
+ * silent drop. The TS twin (`../designer.ts` `DashboardConfig`) no longer
+ * declares it at all; both halves are pinned by
+ * `__tests__/dashboard-config.test.ts`.
  */
 export const DashboardConfigSchema = z.object({
   id: z.string().optional().describe('Dashboard identifier'),
@@ -592,10 +604,7 @@ export const DashboardConfigSchema = z.object({
     icon: z.string().optional(),
     variant: z.string().optional(),
   })).optional().describe('Header action buttons'),
-  aria: z.object({
-    label: z.string().optional(),
-    description: z.string().optional(),
-  }).optional().describe('ARIA accessibility attributes'),
+  aria: z.never({ error: 'RETIRED (objectui#5852) — `aria` is no longer part of DashboardConfig; delete the key. The `{ label, description }` spellings matched no renderer vocabulary and nothing ever read them.' }).optional().describe('RETIRED (objectui#5852) — the `{ label, description }` spellings matched no renderer vocabulary and no read point ever consumed them; delete the key. For real ARIA use the spec vocabulary (`ariaLabel` / `ariaDescribedBy` / `role`) on a surface that reads it.'),
 });
 
 /**