Best Practices for Overlays Ken Nakata writes a thought-provoking article about controversial accessibility overlays. Ken was once opposed to overlays, but has come around to the idea, on the basis that they can work harmoniously with other accessibility initiatives. He concedes that the damage has already been done by inaccurate marketing of overlay companies, who… [Read More]

Microsoft and Peel school board collaborate to launch Minecraft world focused on accessibility For those who don’t know, Minecraft has an education edition. (I wish I had this while I was in school!). That edition now has a new world, called BuildAbility. In partnership with America’s Peel District School Board (PDSB), it was launched on… [Read More]

Tech Journalism’s Accessibility Problem Monica Chin, computing reporter at The Verge, writes about the lack of accessibility content in tech magazines. She notes that most accessibility content is written by freelance journalists, or by staff journalists whose primary focus is something else. The lack of mainstream content makes it hard for disabled consumers to know… [Read More]

The negative impact of stylised captions on TikTok and Instagram It used to be that there was not enough captioned content on social media. People were posting videos but not captioning them, either because it wasn’t possible on the platform at the time or because they couldn’t be bothered. Auto captioning has become more and… [Read More]

Purchasing Power Parity Accessibility of content based on price and economics is not something I’ve covered often, so I’m glad to have come across this really interesting article. Sophia Lucero writes about a trend she’s noticed in online courses and magazines: websites are beginning to charge different prices based on where in the world you’re… [Read More]

Divs are bad! An article by Manuel Matuzović, which he openly admits is a clickbait title! Manuel concedes that the <div> is useful for additional elements for styling, for structuring content when no other suitable element exists, and for when you need custom landmarks. He then lists the issues with using <div> incorrectly. Using a… [Read More]

WordPress Accessibility Day Returns November 2-3, 2022 Deborah Edwards-Oñoro tells us about a virtual, accessibility focussed conference in November. Full details over at wpaccessibility.day. For a taste of what to expect from the day, check out the talks from 2020. It looks to be a good mix of beginner and advanced accessibility concepts, as well… [Read More]

ScreenReader app A project I came across recently was the ScreenReader app, which is a learning aid to help you to use VoiceOver on iOS and TalkBack on Android. It contains exercises to navigate by headings and links, and to select, copy and paste text. The app is an initiative of the Appt Foundation. Its source… [Read More]

Over 96% of Government Websites Hide Disabled Men and Women on Their Site This article raises an important point about how photos of people are sourced and used. Sites such as Shutterstock are used to find stock photos of people to use on websites. Searching for “happy person”, “person smiling” or “happy face” rarely surfaces… [Read More]

Please Stop Using Grey Text “W3 AGWG Invited Expert” and Readability and Color Science Researcher, Andrew Somers, argues that the WCAG 2 contrast specifications have been harmful to accessibility, as they don’t factor in how colours are perceived. Some colour combinations that shouldn’t pass, do, and some that should, don’t. Since the introduction of WCAG… [Read More]