‘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]

I’m going on holiday next week, so the next edition of week11y will likely be Monday 9th March! Apple debuts ‘head pointer’ accessibility feature in macOS beta, a cursor that follows your eyes Apple have released a feature in macOS Catalina beta, which uses the webcam to follow your head movement, enabling you to move… [Read More]

The Click-Away Pound Survey 2019 This 32 page report (ironically only available as Word/PDF documents) of last year’s survey has some highlights. There are 7.15 million internet users in the UK that have access needs (an increase of 1 million since 2016), with a spending power of £24.8 billion. Around 70% will click away from… [Read More]

But first, an announcement: Government Digital Service is hiring a Head of Accessibility to be a “thought leader and champion of accessible and inclusive services”. Applications close on 25th February 2020 at midnight. Memes Are Still Inaccessible to the Blind Time article sharing the impact of memes being unreadable to the blind. Accessibility is often… [Read More]

Progressive React A surprisingly quick read despite its length: Houssein Djirdeh details several techniques for improving performance and accessibility of React applications. Use pre-rendered or server-side rendered (SSR) React, ideally hydrated in Node ‘streams’ rather than en-masse. Use streams for extracting critical CSS too. Various DevTools profilers help identify unnecessary component re-renders: override shouldComponentUpdate or… [Read More]

How I’m making Maps better for wheelchair users like me Article by Google employee Sasha Blair-Goldensohn, talking about the role he’s played in making the world more accessible to the 65 million wheelchair users worldwide. In his “20% time”, Sasha and other colleagues launched ‘wheelchair-friendly transit directions’ for Google Maps, and worked with the 120… [Read More]

Gaming Needs Some Basic Accessibility Improvements in 2020 Article by Laura Dale, explaining some of the most commonly requested accessibility features for console gaming (controls remapping, colour blindness support and the ability to adjust text size). A cautionary note about the new PS5 controller, which will have a “resistive trigger” (become harder to press under certain… [Read More]

There is no “Myths of Color Contrast Accessibility” A UX Movement article (covered in November) argued that text/background color combinations that fail the WCAG AA contrast threshold can actually be easier to read than those that pass. Geoffrey Crofte has written a counter-article arguing that the methodology of the original article was flawed, proposing his… [Read More]

7 Predictions for Accessibility in 2020 and Beyond A UsableNet article that is full of optimism for the future: Jason Taylor predicts that a rise in a11y-related lawsuits will drive a more proactive approach to building accessible websites. Companies will no longer settle for agency-built sites or CMS templates that are inaccessible, and many will… [Read More]

Sony’s new Back Button Attachment brings customizable paddles to the DualShock 4 Sony are releasing a $30 attachment for the DualShock 4 controller which slots into the back and provides two extra large buttons. These can be mapped to any of the other buttons on the controller, and could be a (literal) game changer for… [Read More]