GOV.UK fixes a noisy screenreader issue GOV.UK had discovered that in recent versions of screen readers, its contact form was too aggressive in announcing how many characters were remaining. This was despite the existing markup of aria-live=”polite”. I’ve been keeping an eye on the GitHub issue for this, and a fix was merged recently. There… [Read More]

Introduction to Web Accessibility course Quick shout-out to edx.org, which is offering a free “Introduction to Web Accessibility” course. It takes an estimated 4-5 hours per week, for 4 weeks, to complete the course, but you can go at your own pace. It covers WCAG, POUR, finding W3C resources, and how you can check pages… [Read More]

WCAG, but in language I can understand Designer/developer Martin Underhill has written “a single article summing up each success criterion (SC) in WCAG 2.1 in as close to a single paragraph as [he] can manage”, because the guidelines themselves are not the easiest read. He leads with a disclaimer that this is not aimed at… [Read More]

Guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued the above guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). This has prompted a number of articles, I’ve covered a couple of them here. “Justice Department Breaks its Silence Regarding Website Accessibility” describes how the guidance explains… [Read More]

a11yphant: “Learning web accessibility made easy” I haven’t tried this, so can’t vouch for how good it is, but have come across it in a few a11y newsletters of late. Worth checking out: a11yphant teaches web accessibility, one step at a time, broken down into manageable pieces. We call these challenges. You won’t need to… [Read More]

Age-positive image library launched to tackle negative stereotypes of later life “The Centre for Ageing Better has launched a free library of positive and realistic images of people aged 50 and over.” “The images, which depict older people in non-stereotypical ways, are available for download and free to use.” The library is available here: https://ageingbetter.resourcespace.com/pages/home.php… [Read More]

Highcharts for accessibility Highcharts JS is a library for creating beautiful interactive charts. (Ex colleagues in BBC Visual Journalism, take note – I think you’ll like this!) This accessibility focussed page showcases how a well-built Highcharts chart can be accessible. The first demo shows how you can dig out every piece of information using keyboard… [Read More]

Designing accessible services This guidance by the UK Home Office covers best design practices for supporting users with a variety of disabilities, including anxiety, autism, deafness, dyslexia, low vision, mobility disabilities and blindness. Each category is summarised in just a handful of key points, so it doesn’t take long to read them all. The main… [Read More]

Usability Testing with People with Disabilities Knowbility.org – a nonprofit org based in Texas, serving globally – has an “AccessWorks database” of hundreds of people with disabilities including blindness, deafness, mobility impairments and cognitive disabilities. You can hire these volunteers to help with usability testing your website. Knowbility works as the go-between, negotiating the quote… [Read More]

This week is a resources special, covering tools, training and libraries that have landed in my inbox recently! Web Accessibility by Google This is a free Udacity course, aimed at giving “advanced” skills to developers over a span of approximately 2 weeks. It covers developing for screen readers, semantic markup, and managing focus, with material… [Read More]