What to Do If You Think Your Child Is Color Blind Around 1 in 10 males have some form of colour blindness – a much higher rate than that in women. It’s a genetic trait typically passed down from the mother. You can conduct Ishihara tests at home (online) to determine colour blindness. There is… [Read More]

The Physics (and Economics, and Politics) of Wheelchairs on Planes A detailed article highlighting the stress of flying as a wheelchair-user, involving being picked up and strapped into an ill-fitting seat while your wheelchair is put in the hold (and subsequently lost or damaged in transit, as happens in a lot of cases). The principle… [Read More]

‘No captions no vote’: why deaf voters are calling for more accessible campaigning this general election Article by Liam O’Dell, highlighting that a lot of political campaign videos lack captions, making them inaccessible to the 11 million people in the UK (1/6 of the population) with deafness or hearing loss (not to mention that 85%… [Read More]

Making a Better Custom Select Element A ‘how-to’ guide from accessibility expert Julie Grundy. It describes the drawbacks of the native <select> element – the lack of autocomplete, the inflexibility around what can appear inside each <option>. Julie talks us through building a custom select, avoiding the accessibility pitfalls that many custom select components fall… [Read More]

18 WAI-ARIA attributes that every web developer should know Use aria-label when you can’t use generic <label>, and aria-describedby for supplementary info, such as to associate error messages with their corresponding inputs. Use role=”heading” and aria-level=”2″ instead of <h2> if you can’t use the element (for SEO reasons, etc). Whenever there is a visible status… [Read More]

Walking On Egg Shells: Why Bosses Are Scared To Talk About Neurodiversity Article by psychologist Dr Nancy Doyle, highlighting that companies are increasingly attempting to improve their inclusivity, but are nervous about using the wrong language. “People with disabilities” vs “disabled people” represent two different models – the first being ‘people-first’ (we are people, not… [Read More]

Today is the International Day of People with Disabilities. This is an occasion “to educate the public on issues of concern, to mobilize political will and resources to address global problems, and to celebrate and reinforce achievements of humanity.” It’s also a good opportunity to remind teams in the UK public sector of their responsibility… [Read More]