From A Colourblind Designer To The World: Please Stop Using Red And Green Together A designer with deuteranopia – red/green colourblindness – writes about how the use of green and red in web design is problematic. Namely: Using colour to indicate validation status in forms. Adding other visual indicators such as icons would help to… [Read More]

The accessibility stalemate Chris Heilmann talks about how the accessibility community holds back the accessibility movement by setting the pedestal too high. There are plenty of great talks about accessibility, but, apparently, many speakers don’t release their slides afterwards. Why? Because people “call out any accessibility problems with the materials”. If the content isn’t 100%… [Read More]

Your Image Is Probably Not Decorative Eric Bailey explains why most images nowadays need some form of alternative text. You can ‘nullify’ images – removing them from the screen reader experience – by adding an empty alt text, i.e. <img alt=”” …>. This should only be used when the image doesn’t convey information that is… [Read More]

Accessible Overflow A fascinating insight into browser behaviour by Marcus Herrmann. When navigating ‘overflow’ content, i.e. text that doesn’t fit inside its container, this requires us to scroll through the content. Many of us would simply use the mouse wheel to scroll within those containers, but how about users who navigate by keyboard? Keyboard users… [Read More]

Will Accessibility Become Increasingly Important for SEO? A deque blog post, with no clear answer – but an interesting topic nonetheless. Google has for years made mobile usability and speed a factor in SEO – Search Engine Optimisation – meaning that they favour websites which work well on mobile and load fast, and in turn,… [Read More]

Microsoft: Accessibility is a focus in Windows 11 Windows 11, announced at the end of June, is being designed “with accessibility in mind”. The OS will include dark, light and customisable themes, and the improved Closed Captions will be more customisable too. Microsoft have rebranded the old “Ease of Access” setting to the more idiomatic… [Read More]

Experimental Brain Implant Lets Man With Paralysis Turn His Thoughts Into Words A fascinating article describing how a paralysed man has had a device implanted into his brain, which decodes signals in the brain that once controlled his vocal tract. After several months of training, the system has a vocabulary of 50 words and the… [Read More]

Blind York student wins £5k claim over ‘inaccessible’ loan form Disability rights activist Holly Scott-Gardner, has won a settlement after being unable to fill in a student loan disabled students application form, because it was inaccessible to her (as someone who is blind). Holly had to fill in the form over the phone, after several… [Read More]

Why debate non-text contrast of UI elements? An article by Dave House, describing how WCAG 2.1 Non-text contrast has enough wiggle-room in it that designers often dismiss it, saying “UI elements don’t need to meet this requirement”. He explains: the success criterion states “if the visual indicator of the control is the only way to… [Read More]

Coronation Street highlights the challenges faced by disabled people working from home during the pandemic This story focuses on Izzy Armstrong, played by Cherylee Houston. The storyline goes that Izzy is clinically vulnerable and has been shielding and working from home throughout the pandemic. Her job is now at risk as her boss insists she… [Read More]