Xbox reveals a huge new accessibility feature that puts Sony and Nintendo to shame A clickbait headline, no doubt, but an interesting announcement: Xbox are introducing a classification system to their stores (Xbox.com, PC, Game Pass), ‘tagging’ games with information related to their accessibility. This is to make it easier for disabled gamers to know… [Read More]
Stark, a hub for accessible software design, launches a Mac app in beta Stark is a suite of tools for the world’s most popular design apps. “Companies can upload their design files, which then identifies accessibility issues and suggests changes.” It “offers checks and suggestions to make sure that visual materials meet accessibility standards for… [Read More]
Have Single-Page Apps Ruined the Web? (video, 19m) Talk by Rich Harris, creator of Rollup and Svelte, for Jamstack Conf. He explains what a Single Page App (SPA) is, then starts off critical. “SPAs are terrible because”: Bloated JS framework, complex tooling, poor performance. It will be buggy. Expectations of the web are broken, e.g…. [Read More]
Myths about Web Accessibility This got shared around the work chat recently. A blog post by Álvaro Montoro that busts 10 myths about accessibility: Accessibility is difficult – “Accessibility is not difficult. Do you know what’s difficult? Running at an Olympic level. A Web Developer can learn at least the basics of Web Accessibility within… [Read More]
Colorblind Accessibility Manifesto colorblindaccessibilitymanifesto.com lists 10 rules developers/designers should follow to not exclude the 350 million colourblind people in the world; nearly 8% of men and 0.4% of women. Start with “Why?” [you are making the change in the first place] Don’t communicate only with colors Design with shapes Choose the right copy Test your… [Read More]
5 False Claims 1-Line “AI” Accessibility Script Vendors Make (video, 13m, or read the transcript) Eric Eggert disputes five claims that companies [such as accessiBe] make about their products: “Accessibility can be fully automated”. Human judgement is required to determine what kind of alt text is appropriate in a given context. “AI solutions are effortless”…. [Read More]
Twitter thread about “presentational list heuristics” by James Craig. The whole thing is worth a read, but here are the highlights: There used to be a problem with too many lists for assistive tech users: “all I hear when reading news sites is ‘list, two items … end of list, list 4 items…’ and I… [Read More]
Surface Adaptive Kit makes Microsoft’s laptops more accessible Microsoft is creating a “Surface Adaptive Kit” for its range of laptops/tablets, to better accommodate people with disabilities. The kit includes “keycap labels, bump labels, port indicators and device openers”. For example, a device opener includes a pull tab and ring, to make it easier to open… [Read More]
This Brazilian pianist uses ‘bionic gloves’ to play Pianist João Carlos Martins lost the use of his right hand in a mugging in Bulgaria in 1995. Industrial designer Ubiratan Bizarro invented the “Bionic Extender Gloves”, which have rods that make the fingers spring back up after they depress the piano keys, allowing the pianist to… [Read More]
Does WAI-ARIA even work with WebXR? As someone who has recently bought an Oculus Quest 2, this is really exciting technology that has come a long way in a very short time. It’s crucial that we address accessibility needs as this technology matures. Thomas Logan writes about his experiment with ARIA and Web XR (“Web… [Read More]
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