Your fortnightly frequent11y newsletter, brought to you by @ChrisBAshton:

Why videos on GOV.UK use the YouTube video player

• Anika Henke explains how GDS investigated 20 different video players for their usability, performance and accessibility, by using keyboard only, increasing font sizes and trying it with screen readers. Their conclusion was that the native YouTube player was the best (and more sensible than building their own), though it’s interesting to note that no player was perfect, and they all had issues when changing system colours.

New media queries you need to know

• Article by Kristofer Selbekk, suggesting several up-and-coming media queries you can use to cater for all users. There are some useful boolean ones: prefers-reduced-motion, prefers-reduced-data, prefers-reduced-transparency, prefers-contrast. But there are also some variable ones: light-level to accommodate people in bright sunlight or in bed at night, for example. Finally, a @custom-media keyword is coming, which could be used to script your own media queries, such as @media(--logged-in) or @media(--no-connection).

16 Things to Improve Your Website Accessibility

• Bruce Lawson describes the most common errors sites make & how to remedy them. The main one: too much content, which should be broken up into sections with headings and bulleted lists, and should be in plain English and a legible font. Avoid reCAPTCHA (or use reCAPTCHA v3; a pure JavaScript API that returns a ‘score’) and autoplaying videos/graphics. Use unique text for your links (never just “here”), and make them look like links (don’t remove focus style). Label your form fields, and don’t disable autofill. There are several more tips, so it’s worth a read.

That Time I Tried Browsing the Web Without CSS

• Jon Kantner describes his experience of disabling CSS, for checking accessibility standards like like headings, form controls, visual hierarchies, content order and images existing as <img> rather than background images that get lost. It’s not just theoretical: 12.5% of users who rely on assistive tech use custom stylesheets. The results are predictable: sprites that no longer make sense, unsemantic form inputs, images with no specified widths, and duplicate elements (e.g. both mobile and desktop equivalents existing in the same DOM).

How I disclose my disability during a job search

• Haley Moss describes the experience of applying for jobs and wondering when and whether to disclose her autism, for fear of being treated differently. Haley suggests disclosure should generally happen only when you realise you can’t perform an essential function of your job because of your disability and need an accommodation. Most accommodations require little to no financial investment, such as allowing you to wear headphones to drown out office noise. How much to disclose, and how you do it, depends on why you’re disclosing it and who you are talking to.

On Voice Coding

• Dusty Phillips shares his experience of using his voice to code, triggered by a carpal tunnel syndrome diagnosis a few months ago. He invested around a thousand dollars in his setup, which includes Dragon Naturallyspeaking, a Windows machine and a high-end microphone. Dusty uses Caster, which is built on top of Dragon, for coding-oriented voice commands. The article describes his configuration in great detail, and there’s a video of voice coding in the comments if you want to see something similar in action.

The First U.S. Web Accessibility Agreement was Signed Twenty Years Ago

• On March 14th, 2000, Bank of America was the first US company to sign an agreement to make its website accessible, referencing WCAG 1.0 (only a few months old at the time). It was the output of a ‘structured negotiation’ between the bank and five blind customers. The bank hired a mutually agreed accessibility consultant, Shawn Henry, to oversee the work. It’s interesting to note that no lawsuit was required, and that digital accessibility in law is now two decades old.

Video game accessibility aided by consultants who say it’s not about compromising game design

• Article about how accessibility consultants are working behind the scenes to create a more inclusive video game industry. A common argument against accessibility adjustments is that they’ll ruin the ‘creative vision’ of the game. In reality, lowering difficulty settings is a cheap and unsatisfying way of ‘achieving accessibility’. It is far better to provide custom control mapping, add subtitles, enable camera snapping, etc. Another myth is that these features are rarely used, however: one third of Uncharted 4 players used the ‘one handed control’ option, and 60% of Assassins Creed: Origins players turned subtitles on.

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