Digital accessibility watch April - May 2026

Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) celebrates its 15th anniversary on May 21, 2026,
"Is the internet more accessible than it was ten years ago?": https://intopia.digital/global-accessibility-pulse-2026/

Following the lawsuit against major retailers for lack of accessibility, a major disappointment (fr): https://apidv.org/actualites/decision-du-tribunal-judiciaire-de-lille and https://droitpluriel.fr/decision-du-tribunal-judiciaire-de-lille-le-6-mai-2026apidv-et-droit-pluriel-c-auchan-e-commerce-une-interpretation-gravement-erronee-du-droit-de-laccessibilite-numerique/

On March 31st, it was the first edition of A11y Ouest. We were there representing Orange, and we look forward to the return of A11y Paris in 2027. A report is available here (fr): https://access42.net/compte-rendu-A11y-ouest-2026/.

Accessibility in Laws, Standards, and Recommendations #

• Prioritizing efforts for ADA Title II: https://vispero.com/resources/ada-title-ii-accessibility-prioritization-guide/
• Stakeholder perspective on the EAA: https://www.anysurfer.be/fr/blog/detail/european-accessibility-act-le-point-de-vue-des-personnes-en-situation-de-handicap
• Cool stuff coming in ARIA 1.3: https://afixt.com/cool-new-stuff-coming-in-aria-1-3/
• ARCOM's good intentions: https://www.arcom.fr/actualites/projet-strategique-2026-2028-de-larcom-une-regulation-du-numerique-plus-forte-proteger-les-francais
• All about WCAG 3.1.2 Language of parts: https://tarnoff.info/2026/05/11/A11y-101-3-1-2-language-of-parts/

Accessibility Strategy #

• EU Accessibility and Inclusion Strategy: https://commission.europa.eu/news-and-media/news/boosting-accessibility-and-inclusion-persons-disabilities-2026-05-06_en
• Creating Accessible Digital Documents, Introduction: https://tetralogical.com/blog/2026/05/13/creating-accessible-documents/
• Auditing at the end of the cycle is not the solution, shift left: https://buttondown.com/access-ability/archive/you-can-t-audit-your-way-into-accessibility/
• A11y overlays, that's bad, let's talk about it again: https://the-word.news/2026/0402/accessibility-overlays-create-problematic-quick-fixes/
• One year after the EAA, reflections: https://gbbns.co/journal/accessibility-problem-isnt-design/
• We need people dedicated to A11y: https://gbbns.co/journal/design-brief-that-never-mentioned-disabled-people/
• A11y debt compared to UX debt, the cost is much higher, read about it: https://www.accessux.com.au/blog/design-debt-vs-accessibility-debt-why-fixing-it-early-saves-millions/
• No secret, A11y from the start, interesting: https://annaecook.com/writing/2026/ai-doesnt-fix-accessible-systems-it-depends-on-them

Testing Accessibility #

• Criterion 2.5.8 Target Size: https://tarnoff.info/2026/04/06/A11y-101-2-5-8-target-size/
• Further testing with Playwright than Axe or Lighthouse: https://www.davidmello.com/software-testing/test-automation/playwright-accessibility-testing-axe-lighthouse-limitations
• WCAG 3.0 and Contrast Ratio Calculation: https://adrianroselli.com/2026/04/wcag3-contrast-as-of-april-2026.html
• Testing with Users with disabilities (fr): https://A11ywithdiana.substack.com/p/how-to-organize-a-testing-with-users
• The keyboard and A11y: https://www.dennisdeacon.com/accessibility/keyboard-accessibility-the-clearest-signal-of-digital-maturity/

Technical Points #

• The sessionTimeOut and A11y, complete: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2026/04/session-timeouts-accessibility-barrier-authentication-design/
• Discussion on the autofocus attribute, to read: https://github.com/whatwg/html/issues/12436
• Beyond compliance, Let's avoid "br" elements: https://www.anysurfer.be/fr/blog/detail/balance-ton-br
• Making containers with overflow scrollable: https://247webdevs.blogspot.com/2026/05/why-keyboard-users-cant-scroll-your.html
• aria-label, yes, but not anywhere: https://matuzo.at/blog/2026/aria-label-generic-elements
• Hiding elements: the different methods and when to use them: https://vispero.com/resources/not-all-hidden-content-is-equal-how-different-hiding-methods-impact-accessibility/
• Accessible emojis: https://blog.pope.tech/2026/04/01/making-emojis-and-icons-screen-reader-accessible/
• Box shadow instead of outline, beware of A11y: https://matuzo.at/blog/2026/box-shadow-no-alternative-to-outline
• Creating a good heading structure on the page: https://intopia.digital/articles/giving-pages-a-clear-shape-by-using-headings/

Feedbacks #

• Reflections following the 2026 WebAIM Million Report: https://webaim.org/blog/tolerating-inaccessibility/
• Fascinating discussion about due aria-modal and WCAGK 1.3.1 info and relationships: https://www.neilosman.com/posts/aria-modal-programmatically-determined/
• 9 common misconceptions about A11y and their counter-argumentsents: https://stephaniewalter.design/blog/9-accessibility-myths-and-pushbacks-and-how-to-answer-them/
• Libraries and A11y: https://www.accessibilites.abf.asso.fr/2026/05/11/laccessibilite-un-defi-collectif-pour-les-bibliotheques/
• Nothing to boast about with GAAD: https://buttondown.com/access-ability/archive/gaad-2026-not-much-to-celebrate-yet/
• GAAD, anger, and A11y, so true: https://buttondown.com/nic-steenhout/archive/new-podcast-gaad-and-purposeful-anger/
• A reminder about using ARIA, very useful: https://www.dennisdeacon.com/accessibility/aria-done-right-why-accessibility-starts-with-better-decisions-not-more-code/
• AI for creating websites, we knew it, but the A11y isn't: https://axesslab.com/lovable/
• Feedback from a tester with a disability, worth reading: https://access42.net/references-clients/tests-utilisateurs-accessibilite-marjolaine-rayer/

Mobile app, mobile web #

• Drag and drop on Android and A11y: https://buttondown.com/inclusive-android-apps/archive/inclusive-android-apps-5-the-problem-of-drag-and-and-drop/
• Apple unveils new accessibility features and updates powered by Apple Intelligence: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/05/apple-unveils-new-accessibility-features-and-updates-with-apple-intelligence/
• Samsung replaces its version of TalkBack with Google's in the One UI 9 beta: https://accessibleandroid.com/samsung-replaces-its-talkback-version-with-googles-in-one-ui-9-beta/
• Rachele DiTullio has written four excellent articles on using essential assistive technologies and features on iPhone:
  • https://racheleditullio.com/blog/2026/05/at-for-iphone-full-keyboard-access/
  • https://racheleditullio.com/blog/2026/05/at-for-iphone-voice-control-speech-input/
  • https://racheleditullio.com/blog/2026/05/at-for-iphone-voiceover-screen-reader/
  • https://racheleditullio.com/blog/2026/05/4-ios-display-settings-to-check-your-app-with/
• Check accessibility with SwiftUI Previews: https://mobileA11y.com/blog/swiftui-preview-testing/

Assistive Technologies #

• List of some assistive technologies: https://vale.rocks/posts/digital-accessibility-technologies

Ergonomics, UI & UX #

• Is this necessary?: https://alan.com/en/blog/healthy-business/a/is-this-really-needed
• Designers, a proposal to do more with A11y: https://alistapart.com/article/good-designers-bad-websites-a-proposal/
• 10 Main A11y mistakes in Web Design: https://www.levelaccess.com/blog/five-most-common-accessibility-errors-in-software-design-and-development/

Artificial Intelligence (AI) #

• A GitHub AI Agent for A11y, Experimentation Feedback, Not Bad: https://github.blog/ai-and-ml/github-copilot/building-a-general-purpose-accessibility-agent-and-what-we-learned-in-the-process/

• AI and A11y: An Overview: https://annaecook.com/writing/2026/ai-doesnt-fix-accessible-systems-it-depends-on-them

• Another, more comprehensive overview in two parts:

• https://onsman.com/the-impact-of-ai-on-digital-accessibility-part-i/

• https://onsman.com/the-impact-of-ai-on-digital-accessibility-part-ii/

• An Agent Skill (currently under development) for iOS developers, worth testing: https://github.com/dadederk/iOS-Accessibility-Agent-Skill

• Don't rely on AI to generate your image alternatives: https://silktide.com/blog/the-downsides-of-ai-alt-text/

• A11y-specific AI chatbot by WebAim: https://webaim.org/AIMee/

• Stereotypes are cognitive biases: https://A11ywithdiana.substack.com/p/did-you-ever-think-about-how-the

• Testing keyboard accessibility with AI: https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2026/04/29/keyboard-testing-with-the-power-of-ai/

• An evaluation of LLM and A11y: https://microsoft.github.io/a11y-llm-eval-report/

• Google's Modern Web Guidance, to avoid: https://adrianroselli.com/2026/05/maybe-dont-rely-on-googles-modern-web-guidance.html

Resources #

• Improvements for 3D on the web and A11y: https://cerovac.com/a11y/2026/04/new-hope-for-better-accessibility-of-3d-experiences-on-the-web/
• A11y forms: https://www.dennisdeacon.com/accessibility/accessible-forms-are-a-business-imperative-not-a-compliance-checkbox/
• Making graphs accessible: https://www.tempertemper.net/blog/do-graphs-and-charts-need-to-be-accessible
• Personas with disabilities: https://knowaboutaccessibility.org/tag/personas/
• Designing for blind people: https://tetralogical.com/blog/2026/04/02/designing-for-people-who-are-blind/
• The fundamentals of accessibility: https://inklusivo.nl/accessibility-fundamentals/
• Accessibility resources for designers: https://accessibility.tools/
• Two guides on event and communication accessibility (fr): https://lesdevalideuses.org/ressources-2/guides-accessibilite-2026/
• The ten classic A11y errors in design and development: https://www.levelaccess.com/blog/five-most-common-accessibility-errors-in-software-design-and-development/
• Cognitive disability and A11y, very comprehensive: https://mn.gov/mnit/media/blog/?id=38-7429041
• Empathy workshop for A11y, nice: https://sites.google.com/state.co.us/tap-empathy-lab/home

Other #

• Introduction to ableism and how to overcome it, great: https://neurodivergentinsights.substack.com/p/what-ableism-looks-like-examples
• New online MDPH form, not good (fr): https://lesdevalideuses.org/simplification-ou-effacement-le-nouveau-formulaire-mdph-une-violence-de-plus/
• Building a fun image contrast checker in your browser: https://www.timdixon.net/blog/2026/05/how-i-built-a-free-image-colour-contrast-checker-that-runs-entirely-in-your-browser/