Do I have to add a dark mode now? Article by Koos Looijesteijn providing reasons why you may want to consider creating a dark mode for your website. There’s a lot of hype around dark mode since its addition to MacOS Mojave and iOS 13, and it should help support the sizeable proportion of users… [Read More]

Accessible Breadcrumb Navigation Pattern This article advises a list of links surrounded by a <nav aria-label=”Breadcrumb”>. The last link has an aria-current attribute with a value of either “page” or “location” (both appear to be valid). Interestingly, the last link is indeed a link and not just a span of text as is so often… [Read More]

New in iOS 13 Accessibility – Voice Control and More Voice Control is a brand new feature on iOS that lets you interact with on-screen elements using your voice (like Dragon NaturallySpeaking for Windows). It overlays numbers or labels on clickable elements – users can then say things like “Tap 1” to click the first… [Read More]

Website Accessibility and Buying Power of Persons with Disabilities A slightly controversial article from 2011, part of a business case for web accessibility series of blog posts by Karl Groves. Accessibility advocates say that making your site accessible makes it more profitable, as it opens it up to people who would otherwise be unable to… [Read More]

The Front-End Tooling Survey 2019 – Results (specifically question 25) Take these results with a pinch of salt – only 3005 developers filled in the survey, sourced from places like Twitter and LinkedIn. Asked ‘Which of these accessibility tools do you use to test your sites/applications?’ and presented with options, 63% of participants said they… [Read More]

Consistently Inconsistent: When the Most Accessible Experience is Different for Each User A client requested that their ‘select menu’ should sound identical in every screen reader. Author @ericwbailey points out that, counter-intuitively, implementing a bespoke solution would break ‘external consistency’ and worsen the experience for everyone, as users would no longer have the learned predictability… [Read More]

Travelers with disabilities learn what it feels like to fly – without leaving LAX Alaska Airlines and Los Angeles International Airport teamed up in June to allow families to board a ‘fake flight’. The event, dubbed ‘Ability to Fly’, was an opportunity for families with children who struggle with sensory processing and noise, to give… [Read More]

Accessibility Statements Show Commitment to all Site Users (Article from 2013, updated this month). Describes an “Accessibility Statement” (formerly “Accessibility Information Page”) as being a place to list an active phone number & email address, linked to from all pages, and with “details about the organization’s web accessibility policy”. The article links to the Accessibility… [Read More]

Samsung Good Vibes (video, 3 minutes) An advert for Samsung Good Vibes; a messaging app that allows deafblind people to send Morse code – translated into text or voice for recipients – and receive responses as Morse code vibrations. The video shows a family struggling to care for and communicate with their deafblind daughter, forced… [Read More]

What I’ve learned about accessibility in SPAs SPAs need you to manage “back button” behaviour yourself: scrolling to the previous scroll position and focussing on the previous element that was clicked (something browser navigation normally does for free). The article doesn’t describe how you can achieve this and mostly isn’t SPA-related at all. The author… [Read More]