We need more inclusive web performance metrics Scott Jehl writes about how popular user metrics such as Largest Contentful Paint are not necessarily useful to everyone. Users relying on screen readers may not be able to read the page until it becomes fully interactive, sometimes long after the DOM is complete. Scott has raised an… [Read More]

Enhancing ARIA landmarks with aria-labelledby Article by Léonie Watson describing how to use aria-labelledby to distinguish between multiple navigational elements. Example: <nav role=”navigation” aria-labelledby=”firstLabel”><p>Choose an <span id=”firstLabel”>aisle</span> to browse</p><ul><li><a href=”fresh.html”>Fresh foods</a></li>…</ul>. How Does HTML Microdata Help With Accessibility? Scott Vinkle explains how pages marked up with microdata helps the ‘Reader Mode’ in browsers to find… [Read More]

Legacy Applications and Accessibility A deque.com blog post describing approaches to finding accessibility issues in legacy code; for example, scanning the codebase for positive tab index values (tabindex=”1″ etc). An interesting idea is an ‘accessibility JavaScript file’ that you can include on pages to help fix a11y issues without having to modify the legacy code…. [Read More]

Sa11y – accessibility quality assurance assistant An accessibility quality assurance tool geared towards content authors: Sa11y visually highlights common errors, with contextual information. Try out the demo. Text link Accessibilty: aria-label and title Deque article testing <a> links with various combinations of title and aria-label. The conclusion is that aria-label is the best supported attribute,… [Read More]

Celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day with GDS GDS ran a conference on Thursday 21st May. Agenda: “An introduction to digital accessibility regulations”, “How to avoid common accessibility statement fails”, “How to carry out basic accessibility checks”, “Making accessibility accessible: the secret to engaging your workforce”, “What would Marie Kondo do? How to clear your website… [Read More]

Why to Avoid Accessibility Overlay Toolbars, Pugins & Widgets Accessibility Works article warning against the installation of third-party overlays/widgets that promise to make your site accessible. These tools provide options for customising text size, providing magnifiers, and in some cases a built-in screen reader or alt-text generator. However, they cannot address the 70% of accessibility… [Read More]

This Is What Happened at a Captioned Virtual Reality Webinar Meryl K. Evans describes their experience of attending A11yVR meetup, which you can watch. Meryl is deaf and relies on the captions, but being in a VR environment raised several issues, such as other avatars standing in front of the captions. Technical issues such as… [Read More]

Accessibility Maze A game developed by The Chang School, Ryerson University (Ontario). It simulates various challenges which are only overcome by good accessible design, providing good metaphors that encourage things like alt text. I don’t want to give too much away as it would ruin the game – it’s extremely well made and only takes… [Read More]

Why videos on GOV.UK use the YouTube video player Anika Henke explains how GDS investigated 20 different video players for their usability, performance and accessibility, by using keyboard only, increasing font sizes and trying it with screen readers. Their conclusion was that the native YouTube player was the best (and more sensible than building their… [Read More]

‘Show Me a Sign’ recounts the deaf experience for young readers MV Times article from last December, describing Ann Clare Le Zotte‘s new novel “Show me a Sign”, which is now available online. It is set in early 19th century Chilmark, Massachusetts – a town famous for its unusually high percentage of deaf citizens (one… [Read More]