Testing fonts for accessibility Colin Shanley shares the 3 things to bear in mind when choosing a font: Imposters: specific letter shapes that look similar to other shapes can be difficult or impossible to differentiate. For example, lowercase L, uppercase i and the number 1. The image below shows Gill Sans on the left (bad)… [Read More]

We need to talk about WCAG This article is written by Rian Rietveld (my second article in a row by this author, by pure coincidence!) 97.4% of home pages have detectable WCAG 2 failures. Rian concludes that this is a failure in the way we communicate and teach WCAG, which she thinks is partly down… [Read More]

The perfect link Rian Rietveld tackles all the common questions around links: It is usually better to stick with the browser default behaviour, i.e. don’t open links in new tabs/windows. However, it’s OK to do so if you make it clear (“Opens in new window” in the text of the link). Link text should be… [Read More]

WebAIM Screen Reader User Survey #9 One of the most important surveys on the web is back, with a close date of June 15th. The survey is aimed at all screen reader users, including those who just use screen readers for evaluation and testing. The last survey of this kind was in September 2019: Screen… [Read More]

DWP Accessibility Manual The Department for Work and Pensions’ Digital team has written an Accessibility Manual, off the back of some user research the department conducted. The accompanying blog post by Head of Accessibility Craig Abbott describe how they hope it will consolidate key information in one place. It is open source and accepting contributions…. [Read More]

Accessibility and outdoor socialising: ‘I feel unwelcome in my own city’ A BBC article from mid May. As the UK gradually opens up and people are able to dine outside, this must not happen at the expense of wheelchair users. Restaurants are filling pavements and roads with tables for customers, leaving very little (if any)… [Read More]

Resident Evil Village Has An Accessibility Problem I’ve had a number of bookmarks on the theme of Resident Evil Village, which has been a hot topic in a11y newsletters of late. This article berates Capcom for not providing any accessibility options in the menu of the game, meaning that: The camera is stuck on a… [Read More]

7 Accessibility FAQ on the Winn-Dixie ADA Appeal Decision (2021) I like to keep an eye on accessibility legislation in the USA, even when it can feel quite far removed from the UK/EU legal system. Here’s a useful write-up of one of the most important web accessibility cases in recent history: In April 2021, a… [Read More]

How to open a budget Accessibility Simulation Lab Andreea Vlad shares how the NHS Business Service Authority built its “budget” Accessibility Simulation Lab. Whilst the article was published in May 2021, it’s not clear when the lab was actually put together. By its nature, it is very “hands on”, and Andreea also recommends having a… [Read More]