This one is another special two-parter, this time to do with accessible front-end components! A Complete Guide To Accessible Front-End Components A Smashing Magazine article that does a bit too much, in my opinion! It begins with a table of contents, listing common UI components but also media preferences such as dark mode and prefers-reduced-motion…. [Read More]

Today’s newsletter is a two-article WCAG special: WCAG 2.1 Checklist A checklist by Raghavendra Satish Peri, an accessibility evangelist working for Deque. It lists each guideline for WCAG 2.1 A and AA compliance, along with a summary of each and a “Points to Ponder” section, containing useful tidbits like “Always provide alternative options like audio… [Read More]

Automated accessibility testing: Leveraging GitHub Actions and pa11y-ci with axe A blog post describing how to install pa11y-ci to your project and run it automatically with GitHub Actions. pa11y-ci is a Continuous Integration wrapper around pa11y, which is an automated accessibility tool that scans your web pages for issues. You can configure the WCAG standard… [Read More]

3D-printed exoskeleton allows paralysed woman to “walk” An blog post by accessibility consultant Nicolas Steenhout, which has resurfaced recently. It gives his opinion of a CNET article about a paralysed woman whose 3D-printed exoskeleton allows her to “walk”. As Nicolas points out, the $150k exoskeleton holds the woman up, and moves her in a way… [Read More]

Wearable tech helps this blind runner compete in ultramarathons In 2017, Englishman Simon Wheatcroft was the first blind person to run the New York City Marathon solo, without being tethered to a sighted running guide. He managed this by wearing a “Wayband” on his wrist; the device has built-in GPS and vibrates to keep the… [Read More]

In Praise of the Unambiguous Click Menu Mark Root-Wiley shares his thoughts on why hover-based menus should be a thing of the past. They violate Jakob’s Law of Usability: that users prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know. This is because there are several different hover menu… [Read More]

iPhones can now tell blind users where and how far away people are An article from October 2020, but it taught me something I didn’t know: iOS 14.2 allows you to detect whether there are people in view (using your camera), and how far away they are. iOS will say how far the person is… [Read More]