Digital accessibility watch August-September 2024

Little watch, back from vacation!
Sometimes, people are tired of fighting against windmills: https://robertkingett.com/posts/6617/ but, as I often say, favor continuous improvement rather than screwing perfection: https://accessibilityfirstsolutions.com/transform-accessibility/.
And another opinion on WCAG and their form, sometimes not very adapted and understandable: https://yatil.net/blog/my-grief-with-in-brief.
Happy reading...

Accessibility in laws and standards #

• The European Accessibility Act (EAA), overview: https://afixt.com/understanding-the-european-accessibility-act-eaa-ensuring-compliance-and-avoiding-penalties/
• The European Accessibility Act (EAA) is not just technical: https://cerovac.com/a11y/2024/08/european-accessibility-act-requires-culture-to-shift/
• EAA and Arcom, everything you need to know about its role in a11y: https://www.insytful.com/community/blog/how-to-build-an-accessible-button-a-step-by-step-guide
• Legal obligations in France (fr): https://access42.net/ressources/accessibilite-rgaa-obligations-legales/
• Legislative environment of accessibility in France, clear summary (fr): https://www.temesis.com/blog/synthese-des-nouvelles-reglementations-encadrant-laccessibilite-numerique-en-france/

Accessibility implementation strategy #

• What you need to do before asking "is it accessible?": https://adrianroselli.com/2024/08/things-to-do-before-asking-is-this-accessible.html
• Binary accessibility or not, reflection...: https://hidde.blog/accessibility-objectivity/
• The 20/80 rule in accessibility: https://marcus.io/blog/80-20-accessibility
• A W3c accessibility maturity model: https://www.w3.org/TR/maturity-model/
• Extended reality and hearing impairment: https://tetralogical.com/blog/2024/10/01/xr-accessibility-for-people-with-hearing-disabilities/
• 5 steps of agile accessibility: https://www.tpgi.com/5-steps-for-an-agile-approach-to-accessibility/

Testing accessibility #

• A decision tree to know which WCAG criterion to invalidate when an anomaly is detected: https://github.com/andrewhick/accessibility/wiki/WCAG-decision-tree
• Algo for testing WCAG 2.2 criteria for an eb component: https://medium.com/design-ibm/assessing-components-and-patterns-for-wcag-2-2-47ee3f0f468e

Technical points #

• A change of context, what is it for WCAG?: https://webaim.org/blog/decoding-wcag-change-of-context/
• An accessible component, the basis: https://www.scottohara.me/blog/2024/08/22/spoiler.html
• HTML paragraphs and problems in AT: https://www.scottohara.me/blog/2024/08/29/paragraphs.html
• Labels and accessibile fields, the basis: https://tetralogical.com/blog/2024/08/21/labelling-text-fields-with-input-and-label/
• All about accessibility buttons: https://www.insytful.com/community/blog/how-to-build-an-accessible-button-a-step-by-step-guide
• Making popovers on buttons: https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2024/09/21/drugs-button-popover/
• Understanding Accessible Name, Part 1, Well Done: https://melsumner.github.io/understanding-accname-part-one

Feedback #

• Accessibility of Indian Banking Services: https://www.deque.com/blog/insight-into-the-current-state-of-digital-accessibility-in-the-indian-banking-sector/
• Your label must have for even for implicit associations: https://www.tpgi.com/should-form-labels-be-wrapped-or-separate/
• Read and understand an external accessibility audit: https://afixt.com/the-most-important-thing-to-look-at-when-choosing-an-accessibility-auditor/
• The project process as a lever for improving accessibility: https://accessibility.blog.gov.uk/2024/09/03/tackling-a-systems-accessibility-without-testing/
• Complex components, how to make them accessible: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-817621

Assistive technologies #

• Accessibility questions / answers to a blind screen reader user, nice: https://blog.usablenet.com/your-accessibility-questions-answered-by-a-blind-person

Mobile app, mobile web #

• New accessibility features on iOS 18 for blind and deafblind users: https://www.applevis.com/blog/whats-new-ios-18-accessibility-blind-deafblind-user
• Free eBook, "SwiftUI and Accessibility, Creating Inclusive iOS Applications": https://iosdevlibrary.lemonsqueezy.com/
• TalkBack uses Gemini Nano to improve image accessibility for low-vision users: https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2024/09/talkback-uses-gemini-nano-to-increase-low-vision-accessibility.htm
• How to Make Your Native Android App Accessible with Jetpack Compose: https://www.thedroidsonroids.com/blog/mobile-app-accessibility-android-guide
• Tools, Processes, and Checklist for Testing accessibility, the Basics: https://dev.to/nazneenahmad/mobile-accessibility-testing-checklist-process-and-tools-3aed

Ergonomics, UI & UX #

• Toasts are bad UX: https://maxschmitt.me/posts/toasts-bad-ux
• Don't use pure black for text: https://medium.com/ux-planet/alternatives-to-using-pure-black-000000-for-text-and-backgrounds-54ef0e733cdb

Resources #

• Introduction to ARIA design patterns: https://tetralogical.com/blog/2024/08/09/design-patterns-wcag/
• WCAG 2.2 thematic map: https://www.andrewhick.com/accessibility/wcag-map/
• The main dates in accessibility (fr): https://www.temesis.com/blog/timeline-of-important-accessibility-documents/
• Principles of Inclusive Design: https://inclusivedesignprinciples.info/
• Movement and accessibility, complete: https://servicenow.iu.edu/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0025852

Others #

• Why your JS won't load, lots of good reasons so do progressive enhancement: https://piccalil.li/blog/a-handful-of-reasons-javascript-wont-be-available/
• Introduction to Universal Design: https://www.temesis.com/blog/introduction-to-universal-design/
• Semantic HTML code is still important: https://boagworld.com/dev/semantic-code-in-html/