We finish our #WeekOfScreenReader with a double article special: technical deep dives into data tables and dialog focus: Article 1: How screen readers navigate data tables Léonie Watson describes how she navigates data tables with NVDA (alternatively you can watch the video demonstration – 2 mins). Her demo table is marked up with a caption,… [Read More]

Today’s #WeekOfScreenReader is an opinion piece on screen readers and their relationship with image recognition: Thoughts on screen readers and image recognition Léonie Watson talks about image alt text and the fact that over 30% of homepage images are missing text descriptions. An additional 10% had useless alt text such as “image” or “blank”. Screen… [Read More]

After yesterday’s #WeekOfScreenReader, I’ve picked an article written by a web developer, giving their perspective on screen reader testing: A developer’s perspective: the problem with screen reader testing Jake Tracey laments the sheer number of different screen readers and browser/OS combinations, and the lack of data around screen reader versions. Jake argues we can realistically… [Read More]

Continuing the #WeekOfScreenReader, I’ve picked an article written by a screen reader user, aimed specifically at web developers: A message to web developers, from a screen reader user Holly Tuke, who is blind, explains to web developers the positive impact they can have on her web experience by following some simple tips: Try to get… [Read More]

Hello! This week I thought I’d try something different, and bring you five different articles on screen readers. Let me know if you enjoy #WeekOfScreenReader and whether you’d like some more themed digests like this! What better place to start than with a nice, digestible history of screen readers? Here’s your first daily frequent11y newsletter:… [Read More]

Focus management and inert Article by Eric Bailey, reminding developers to avoid manually specifying a tab order with tabindex=”[positive integer]” (there is, arguably, never a good reason to do this). But using tabindex=”-1″ is great for building accessible widgets: it makes elements focusable with JavaScript or click/tap, where it would otherwise not be focusable (i.e…. [Read More]

Is Progressive Enhancement Dead Yet? (video, 8 mins) Another Heydon Pickering ‘Web Briefs’ video, with a somewhat clickbaity title. This isn’t an analysis of frontend strategies in 2021, but a characteristically opinionated explanation of what good vs bad progressive enhancement looks like. In it, Heydon reinforces that: Sites should be functional and have decent layouts… [Read More]

Microsoft Backs Development of Smart Cane for Visually Impaired An interesting idea from London-based startup WeWalk, who have recently joined Microsoft‘s AI for Accessibility program. Their ‘smart cane’ uses ultrasonic object detection to spot hazards such as parked cars, and paired with a smartphone app also features turn-by-turn GPS navigation and taxi-booking facilities. The cane… [Read More]

Death of the PDF? Not quite, but it’s great news for accessibility Danny Bluestone writes about the significance of the change in content design guidance on GOV.UK, which came into effect on 7th December. The updated guidance states “If you publish a PDF or other non-HTML document without an accessible version, you may be breaking… [Read More]

Accessibility in tech improved in 2020, but more must be done A mammoth article highlighting the key accessibility improvements made by the 6 giants of tech: Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and Twitter. There’s a small conclusion at the end, briefly mentioning a few household names that have yet to fix fundamental issues in their… [Read More]