A Deep Dive on Skipping to Content Paul Ratcliffe describes a “2021-friendly” implementation of a skip link. It looks something like this (note that the text is hidden visually until it is focused – I’ve omitted this from the code below): <a href=”#skip-link-target”>Skip to main content</a> <a href=”#skip-link-target” id=”skip-link-target”>Start of main content</a><main>the content</main> Paul points… [Read More]

Tech platform devises new system to simplify process of booking rail travel for disabled travellers Whoosh Media have created a system, “The Real-Time Journey Dashboard”, that allows you to scan QR codes on your train seat, to view information such as location of toilets on the train, as well as a live dashboard demonstrating journey… [Read More]

After a few days off work, I return to deliver your weekly frequent11y newsletter. This week is quite a dev/design heavy one! Your Image Is Probably Not Decorative Eric Bailey explains why most images nowadays need some form of alternative text. You can ‘nullify’ images – removing them from the screen reader experience – by… [Read More]

Experimental Brain Implant Lets Man With Paralysis Turn His Thoughts Into Words A fascinating article describing how a paralysed man has had a device implanted into his brain, which decodes signals in the brain that once controlled his vocal tract. After several months of training, the system has a vocabulary of 50 words and the… [Read More]

Coursera accessibility courses A recommendation by my colleague Stephanie Hill: “Top Web Accessibility Courses” by Coursera. Some interesting ones highlighted below. Design: An Introduction to Accessibility and Inclusive Design Web Design for Everybody Capstone Foundations of User Experience (UX) Design Basics of Inclusive Design for Online Education Testing: Test Accessibility of your Design with A11ygator… [Read More]

Kellogg’s: a game changer in accessible packaging In partnership with RNIB, Kellogg’s has trialled including NaviLens codes on its packaging, giving visually impaired customers a way of scanning products to find out their ingredients, allergen and recycling information. NaviLens codes work in a similar way to QR codes, but can be detected “in a fraction… [Read More]

What Happens When a Blind Person Test Drives VoiceOver Recognition? An article by Rhea Althea Guntalilib, describing her experience of using the new “VoiceOver Recognition” features of iOS 14. It is a collection of tools including “Screen Recognition” (which I’ll talk about below), “Text Recognition” (which detects text found in images) and “Image Descriptions” (which… [Read More]

Overview of accessibility testing using DevTools (Microsoft) A guide by the Microsoft Edge DevTools team, though almost all of it applies to any modern browser. This mammoth article is a 23 minute read, and covers how to use DevTools for automated accessibility testing, by working through the accessibility ‘warnings’ in the console. It then describes… [Read More]

Emojis and accessibility: How to use them properly Ryan Tan shares some tips for accessible emoji usage, mostly in terms of screen reader support, and covering a mixture of ‘design tips’ vs ‘everyday content’: Design: on buttons, don’t use emojis to replace words. E.g. use “Like” rather than “👍”, which could be ambiguous. Don’t use… [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]