Digital accessibility watch April-May 2022

You've lost the force and when you are involved in A11y, you know this feeling, aren't you... turn around and have a look: https://uxdesign.cc/regaining-your-accessibility-spark-a182eee9e8e6

• A final call for comments for Synchronization Accessibility User Requirements (SAUR): https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-wai-announce/2022AprJun/0001.html
  The W3c has launched a New ARIA Authoring Practices Guide website, it's really a good source of clear informations: https://www.w3.org/WAI/ARIA/apg/
  We continue our journey in the a11y overlays, an excellent response from a questioned expert, to read (in): https://adrianroselli.com/2022/04/my-cease-desist-from-audioeye .html
  And some new s on WCAG 2.2, it seems to be pushed back to September 2022, here's why: https://www.deque.com/blog/why-wcag-2-2-is-still-in-the-oven/
• and another update on WCAG 2.2 and 3.0: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/wcag-22-3-status-updates-rachael-bradley-montgomery/
• and a last one: https://uxdesign.cc/wcag-2-2-is-delayed-again-and-im-ok-with-that-bd3066e56985

accessibility in laws and standards #

• Everything about the European directive for web accessibility, it's what makes a11y "compulsory" in Europe: https://web-directive.eu/#toc1
• A certain computer code of ethics and a11y, it is neither a law nor a standard, but it should be read: https://ethics.acm.org/code-of-ethics/using-the-code/case-accessibility-in-software-development/
• A W3c doc giving advice on ensuring content accessible to cognitively impaired people: https://www.w3.org/TR/coga-usable/
• Use of color (WCAG 1.4.1 criterion), some specific examples, well documented: https://www.tpgi.com/well-color-us-surprised-this-sc-can-be-a -tricky-customer/

Feedback and accessibility #

• An old school web multiselect (HTML semantics) but very effective, to see: https://adrianroselli.com/2022/05/under-engineered-multi-selects.html
• Support for aria-describedby in browsers/AT, teaser: don't be fooled: https://adrianroselli.com/2022/04/accessible-description-exposure.html
• Accessibility remediation, 4 basic mistakes: https://www.boia.org/blog/4-web-accessibility-remediation-mistakes-to-avoid
• Free guide, everything to make VueJs accessible: https://accessible-vue.com/read/
• An accessible, serious web component list: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2022/04/accessible-filterable-paginated-list-11ty-alpinejs/
• On A11y overlays and their ineffectiveness: https://convergeaccessibility.com/2022/05/09/a-different-view-into-accessibility-overlays/
• Taking user feedback from bug A11y into account is important: https://www.boia.org/blog/why-form-labels-and-instructions-are-important-for-digital-accessibility
• One more, why not using a11y's overlays, 6 good reasons: https://university-relations.umn.edu/blog/2022/04/18/6-reasons-avoid-using-web-accessibility-overlays
• A11y's 10 mistakes to focus on: https://equalentry.com/10-most-cited-accessibility-issues/

Accessibility Strategy #

• Arguments for pushing a11y: https://tetralogical.com/blog/2022/04/05/business-case-for-accessibility/
• Funding a11y: https://pleasefunda11y.com/
• Progressive improvement and a11y, why: https://meryl.net/accessibility-progress-not-perfection/
• how to coach a11y: https://www.deque.com/blog/what-is-accessibility-coaching-and-why-does-it-matter/
• Best practices in terms of contract and accessibility, there's everything: https://github.com/mgifford/a11y-contracting#accessibility-contracting-best-practices
• Video games and accessibility, what is being done, 3 articles on trends (fr): https://www.jeuxvideo.fr/dossier/419655-handicap-et-jeu-video-le-long-chantier-de-l-accessibilite
• Basic bugs to fix: https://hidde.blog/common-a11y-issues/
• Perceivable and accessibility, definition: https://www.boia.org/blog/what-is-perceivability-in-web-accessibility-wcag-principles-explained
• Third party content and service, ensure A11y: https://www.tpgi.com/ensure-third-party-content-is-accessible/
• A11y's bugs are a good thing and how to handle them well: https://sheribyrnehaber.com/why-accessibility-bugs-are-a-good-thing-and-how-to-handle-them/
• Different perspectives: https://hidde.blog/a11y-perspectives/
• Organizing governance for A11y, to read, several articles: https://www.microassist.com/digital-accessibility/organizational_leadership_accessibility/

Test accessibility #

• A well-made quality checklist around WCAG: https://not-checklist.intopia.digital/
• New version of the bookmarklet to test a criterion of future WCAG 2.2, criterion 2.5.8: https://codepen.io/aardrian/pen/eYyjNVg
• The main errors detected during the Million study by WebAim and how to correct them:
• https://christianheilmann.com/2022/04/12/one-million-broken-web-sites-and-a-way-to-prevent-that/
• https://hidde.blog/common-a11y-issues/
• https://www.joedolson.com/2022/04/still-plenty-of-work-to-do-the-webaim-million/
• Test the a11y, under construction but already good: https://racheleditullio.com/projects/accessibility-testing/
• Keyboard testing: https://dev.to/steady5063/keyboard-testing-the-a11y-enhancement-to-your-definition-of-done-2n7c
• The checklist to ensure that a web tech can produce a11y content, W3c draft: https://w3c.github.io/apa/fast/checklist.html

Technical points in accessibility #

• Go further in the rem, em, px and zoom confrontation, to read absolutely: https://www.joshwcomeau.com/css/surprising-truth-about-pixels-and-accessibility/
• Don't Disable Zooming: https://www.matuzo.at/blog/2022/please-stop-disabling-zoom/
• All about aria-labelledby, all about it: https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2022/04/03/aria-labelledby-usage-notes/
• Bad examples of using Divs and the problems they cause: https://www.matuzo.at/blog/2022/divs-are-bad/
• The skip-links or avoidance links, comply with the WCAG criterion: https://medium.com/evinced-inc/beam-me-up-methods-to-meet-the-bypass-blocks-success-criterion-83b84acdc599
• Don't remove the Outline when taking focus, a podcast: https://a11yrules.com/podcast/default-focus-outlines-dont-remove-them/
• In the same vein, on invisible focus indicator, see comments: https://dev.to/colabottles/stop-removing-focus-2o7b
• Buttons, space and enter, attention: https://adrianroselli.com/2022/04/brief-note-on-buttons-enter-and-space.html

Mobile app, mobile web #

• The YouTube channel of devs on Android and a11y, rich: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWz5rJ2EKKc8OENfLdh3zM5T6IRdlVYKj

Ergonomics, UI & UX #

• Official guide to making accessible with Axure: https://www.axure.com/blog/approachable-guide-prototyping-accessibility-axure-rp
• In-depth article on the methods of inclusive design, serious: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/inclusive-design/
• Changing its inclusive design approach, interesting point of view: https://www.fastcompany.com/90697288/inclusive-design-has-become-so-widely-used-that-its-meaningless-that-has-to-change
• Handle text in CSS above an image, pretty: https://ishadeed.com/article/handling-text-over-image-css/
• All about a good language selector, great job with lots of examples: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2022/05/designing-better-language-selector/
• Form, labels and instructions, it's not just about accessibility: https://www.boia.org/blog/why-form-labels-and-instructions-are-important-for-digital-accessibility

Resources #

• A good library of modal window components (dialog, alert) web accessible: https://a11y-dialog.netlify.app/
• Best practices for a language selector: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2022/05/designing-better-language-selector/
• A book (free online) on setting up an a11y approach, to see...: https://www.thebookonaccessibility.com/
• The handy a11y cheat sheet: https://dev.to/codegino/web-accessibility-cheat-sheet-3774
• To get started with a screen reader: https://speckyboy.com/testing-your-website-screen-reader/
• Captioning in YouTube, another tutorial: https://jimbyrne.co.uk/use-youtube-to-create-video-captions/
• Some basic advice to get started in A11y: https://www.boia.org/blog/8-ways-to-make-website-accessibility-easier-and-less-expensive
• E-learning, introduction to digital accessibility by the W3c: https://www.edx.org/course/web-accessibility-introduction
• Nice illustrations following an accessibility training: https://stephaniewalter.design/blog/5-illustrations-to-understand-and-promote-accessibility/
• A huge list of a11y resources: https://cstrobbe.gitlab.io/AccessibilityResources/contentaccessibility.html

Others #

• Misconceptions about the a11y, nice anthology of our colleague @nota-bene (fr): https://nota-bene.org/Idees-fausses-et-accessibilite
• A point on automatic speech recognition: https://www.3playmedia.com/blog/the-state-of-automatic-speech-recognition/
• An a11y observatory in France, to follow because I don't know where it goes (fr): https://observatoire.access-score.org/index.php?p=0
• A mouse that adapts to the needs of disabled users: https://www.mac4ever.com/divers/170810-microsoft-presente-a-mouse-and-buttons-adapted-to-users-with-disabilities