If you’re a web developer, or if you develop browsers or assistive technologies (AT), the following screenshot is probably familiar to you. It’s the first part of the definition of the button element in the HTML specification. But wait… what’s that new section called “Accessibility considerations” doing there? There’s a link “For authors” and a […]
Category: Development
<select> your poison part 2: test all the things
TL:DR; Jump straight to the recommendations In part 1 of this deep dive, we took a broad look at both how the native <select> element works across browsers and platforms, and the current state of accessible custom select component implementations. It’s necessary to look at how fragmented current select UX patterns are in order to […]
<select> your poison
If the web accessibility community were to somehow collectively agree on a single rallying cry, it could easily be “use native, semantic HTML elements.” This, like most things in accessibility, is an oversimplification, but it is a helpful one. As 2019 draws to a close, many of the popular component libraries (see: Material UI and […]
Game accessibility and the Web
Computer games are a big deal: they are part of our culture, they provide and can promote social inclusion, they can educate (from encouraging and supporting player creativity through making modifications and new game levels, to being used as teaching aids) and they are a hugely popular means of recreation. Just as with other walks […]
Building an accessible bingo web app
It started the way a lot of side projects these days seem to, with a “What if…” sent absent-mindedly over Slack. My teammates and I were about to attend a large meeting and were guessing at which common phrases would come up: words like “roadmap,” “innovation,” and the noun form of “ask.” What if we […]
An adventurer’s guide to W3C specs
2019 has been a landmark year for web standards milestones: the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) turned 25 this October, and it published the first version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 20 years ago in May 1999. Across these past couple decades, the standards body has published quite a few sets of guidelines […]
Web Components and the Accessibility Object model (AOM)
HTML is often underestimated – it isn’t complicated and it isn’t strict, and you can start producing results with just a handful of elements. It isn’t creative like CSS, or energetic like JavaScript, but it quietly teams up with the browser to make a lot of the web work – much more than many people […]
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Tables and Beers
In the last article for the 2018 series, Steve Faulkner provides the results of one beer worth of screen reader testing of simple tables.
ARIA 1.1 – What’s New?
In today’s article, Birkir Gunnarsson tells us what’s new in ARIA 1.1, the new roles and properties that excite him, and the others that disappoint, due to their lack of support.
Benefits of a Single Text Field Versus Multiple Text Fields
In today’s article, Michiel Bijl explains how it’s easier for users to enter a phone number or a credit card number into a single field, but other scenarios may require properly labeled multiple fields.
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Web components still need to be accessible
In today’s article, Eric Bailey explains why developers need to consider accessibility when creating custom web components and use semantic HTML when it makes sense, as to not needlessly reinvent the wheel.
iOS Accessibility Properties: How They Relate to WCAG, and How to Correctly Use Them
In today’s article, Jennifer Dailey explains how the iOS Accessibility Properties relate to the WCAG 2.0 success criteria 4.1.2: Name, Role, Value, and how to properly use them.
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Accessibility and Inclusion with the World’s Most Popular Communication Tool: Email
In today’s article, Jason Rodriguez shares some best practices on creating more accessible and inclusive email campaigns, routinely ranked as one of the world’s most valuable marketing channels, yet very little work has been done to make it more accessible for under-represented groups.
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I Threw Away my Mouse
In today’s article, Manuel Matuzovic shares how he ditched his mouse, going keyboard-only. He shares the results of his research on 200 different pages and the issues that impact keyboard-only users.
Mobilizing Android Accessibility At Airbnb
In today’s article, Diane Ko and Julia Fu talk about accessibility and the Airbnb Android App, the advantages and challenges of the Android platform and how they spread accessibility awareness and know-how through documentation and training.
W3C is Coming to Your A11Y Tools
In today’s article, Wilco Fiers talks about the upcoming harmonization of both automated accessibility testing tools and manual, human testing, lead by the W3C’s Accessibility Conformance Testing (ACT) Task Force.
A New Day: Making a Better Calendar
This calendar year is almost over and we still don’t have any solid guidance or official ARIA pattern on how to build an interactive and accessible calendar widget. Gerard Cohen shows us how to obtain an improved calendar experience.
Accessible SVG Icons with Inline Sprites
At a certain stage in a project someone always comes in and says: ‘We need icons!’ And why do people need icons? Whatever the reasoning may be, we need to make sure that people who can’t see or recognize these icons can understand their purpose. Marco Hengstenberg visits the practice of using SVG icons with inline sprites, and how to ensure these icons are accessible.
The “D” in the DOM
It’s within the Document Object Model (DOM) that we find one of the keys to building accessible things for the web: the document. Anthony Jeffery helps us decide what HTML elements to use to lay the foundation for an accessible document.
Congrats! You Just Received an Inaccessible Gift Card
In today’s article, Dennis Deacon returns with a recent experience with the timely act of redeeming a gift card, and the impact that accessibility plays into gift giving.
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The Trials and Tribulations of the Title Attribute
The title attribute gets a lot of flack. And largely the disdain towards the attribute is quite justified. In June of 1993, twenty-four and a half years ago, title was proposed as part of the HTML 1.2 draft. It is primarily displayed as a native tooltip in desktop browsers, and revealed when a user mouse […]
React’s Accessibility Code Linter
In today’s article, Scott Vinkle asks developers, when creating or maintaining an existing React app, do you wonder about how to make sure the code you write helps to ensure an accessible user interface? There’s a tool to help developers write more accessible code, and it comes pre-packaged with React.
How to build a cloud-hosted accessibility testing Windows computer using Amazon WorkSpaces
In today’s article, Eric Bailey describes the cloud-based option offered by Amazon AWS for developers to create powerful virtual computers in the cloud that are easy to access, but difficult to initially set up. Eric provides the setup steps, and offers a gift to help.
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SVG, Icon Fonts, and Accessibility: A Case Study
In today’s article, Dennis Lembrée provides a brief history of web icons, the pros & cons of several development solutions, and the impact to accessibility on each via a case study featuring the web app Easy Chirp.
Writing Automated Tests for Accessibility
In today’s article, Marcy Sutton explains that while automated tests for accessibility are no substitute for regular manual testing and testing with actual users, they can help free up your team a bit while communicating code quality to members of your team and potentially prevent regressions from deploying to production.
Accessibility in Resizing Text
In today’s article, Tim Wright discusses the impact that preventing text resizing on your sites has on mobile commuters and how small touches and looking at a problem a little differently can often be the difference between users returning and not coming back.
A Developer’s Guide to Better Accessibility
In today’s article, Sean Massa and Melanie Sumner illustrate some core best practices that developers can take to make their work more accessible, test your code while developing, and some support resources.
Providing Alternate Content for Screen Reader Users
Sometimes, components of your user interface will communicate information in a visual manner for which a programmatic or text equivalent may not be available. In these situations, you have to come up with a way to provide the same information to users of screen readers in order to provide an equivalent experience. This article will […]