24 days of digital accessibility gifts during the season of giving and sharing
A few years ago I didn’t know what the term “accessibility” meant. I built Web sites that were partially inaccessible because I didn’t know better. Fast forward to today, I know enough to be able to write, speak and run workshops on accessibility, helping others build more a accessible and inclusive Web. Much like everyone […]
Read What a Year of Learning and Teaching Accessibility Taught Me …
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 […]
Long live the modern browser! Browsers are getting better these days. We seem to be in a golden age where there’s a never-ending stream of new features added for the benefit of the users accessing the page, and really great tools for those creating the page. It hasn’t always been the case, though. Earlier versions […]
Read Pixels vs. Relative Units in CSS: why it’s still a big deal …
There are no definites with color. Sure, you have your red, your green, and so on — but even that is relative. Try to describe a specific red color to a friend. Chances are the description will settle on, for example, is the color more of a brick-red or a fire truck-red? Describing a color […]
In the field of creating accessible products and experiences, I have found that we are behind when it comes to one group in particular: individuals with Cognitive Disabilities. As a Digital Accessibility Specialist with Cognitive Disabilities myself, I feel confident addressing this gap. I’ve been doing a lot of research and speaking about this subject, […]
Accessibility education in organizations is hard, but we can take some of the pressure off by focusing on teaching literacy instead of expertise (and making it a game). Photo by Sarah Pflug from Burst This year at a11yTO Conf, there were many wonderful talks about gaming, storytelling, and learning in regard to accessibility. I think […]
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 […]
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 […]
I work for Code and Theory (C&T), a digital-first creative agency headquartered in New York. C&T is an exceptionally iterative company—creating products and experiences at a rapid pace for clients. In the last week alone, I have researched and implemented test solutions for a hospitality company, a financial tech corporation, a hospital system, a startup, […]
Read Why is an Agency the Perfect Place to Observe and Improve Digital Accessibility? …
For the past three years, I have been working in the Cloud +AI division of Microsoft as a subject matter expert, advising teams on how best to fix accessibility bugs and promoting accessible design. I find the work very fulfilling and look forward to continuing to make an impact on disabled people’s ability to seek […]
Do you practice Inclusive Design? Do you check the accessibility of your digital products? How accessible is your project documentation? Not sure where to start? Don’t worry, I’ll give you some ideas you can use to help make your projects more inclusive. This will help your current and future team. A few things better documentation can […]
In the mid-’90s, I saw an TV ad for hearing aids. The most ironic part was this concluding screen: If you are the target audience of this ad, then you have difficulty hearing. Lest I remind you, using the telephone requires ample hearing capabilities. So for the prospective customer to go through a challenging experience […]
It is possible to build accessible websites. We know because we have experimented with it and researched it. We have failed at it, and kept trying until we succeeded. We have tools, too. We have lists, we have articles, and we have manuals. However, there are a few things we don’t have, yet – some […]
Hello, my name is Ian and I’m a grumpy, old (yet at the same time not quite middle-aged) web developer and accessibility specialist. I have a confession to make: sometimes I don’t enjoy using the web. I’m a fairly average person. I can usually use a mouse and keyboard without any trouble, although I have […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
I believe that people with disabilities often end up as unwilling accessibility testers. Any time a person with a disability interacts with the web, they may be unwittingly performing testing because so many websites are not fully accessible to everyone. These inaccessible web sites and applications present challenges to people with differing abilities. Why not […]
“The issue in Web accessibility is the fact that blind and visually-impaired people need the single biggest boost to achieve equivalence since the real-world Web is a visual medium.” — Joe Clark Esperanza Spalding sings about perception in her song, “Touch in Mine” where she describes the sensation of being able to feel, listen, and […]
Zoey loves browsing the Internet. They enjoy getting lost in the interconnected web full of information, unraveling pieces of knowledge that are bookmark worthy. But they don’t enjoy skimming through large bodies of text. They prefer pictures. A lot of them. They go through their crush’s photos on Facebook before they even consider reading their […]
You’ve heard of this inclusive design thing, and know that a11y is a numeronym for accessibility. It matters to you, and you try to make the people and projects around you better for it. But you’ve conquered the basics. Now what? I have good news to share: going beyond the basics isn’t as hard as […]
Read The intersection of markup, content and context in accessibility …
Number 4 Will Give You a Seizure The title is written as a so-called clickbait title and meant as a tongue-in-cheek joke. Often clickbait titles deceptively present tips as a form of powerful secret knowledge. In this case, accessibility specialists don’t want you to know these tips because they’re bad practice. These are tips you […]
Read 8 Weird Tips Accessibility Specialists Don’t Want You to Know! …
I reference the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Success Criteria in my daily work. Recently, I looked back at how I have applied my interpretation to several success criteria and how I either misinterpreted them or was too aggressive in my interpretation. I’ve since studied the success criteria further and have discussed my interpretations […]
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 […]
Read Web Components and the Accessibility Object model (AOM) …
One of the biggest barriers to accessibility is awareness. We often hear how diversifying our workforce is good for business. I would like to examine why disabilities should be a part of that formula. When developers are tasked with making something accessible, chances are none of them has ever encountered someone with a disability, so […]
Read What adding people with disabilities to your team brings to the mix …