Digital accessibility watch February-Maarch 2022

Some information that seemed important to me!
The accessibility of French public sites has been an obligation in law since 2012, another fight that has not progressed for far too long, still the rights of people with disabilities flouted by the administration. However, the gov has communicated a lot about the figure of 40% of accessible virtual procedures, the reality is very far from that (fr): https://cncph.fr/chiffres-web-public/.
Another example of non-respect of the fundamental rights of people with disabilities, the presidential campaign, where the sites and the campaign of the candidates are far from being accessible (fr):

• https://certam-avh.com/fr/dossiers-thematiques/accessibilite-numerique-la-grande-oubliee-de-la-campagne-presidentielle-2022
• https://www.temesis.com/blog/accessibilite-classement-des-sites-des-candidats-a-la-presidentielle-2022/
  Also this month, the return of the one million study from WebAim update 2022: https://webaim.org/blog/webaim-million-2022/
  And finally, a new content in our site of in our site of recommendations, 5 personae to improve A11y (fr): https://a11y-guidelines.orange.com/fr/persona/

Accessibility in laws, standards and recommendations #

• The EU and the first digital accessibility reports of the different member countries: https://www.deque.com/blog/eu-runs-worlds-largest-accessibility-test/
• Finally, a position of the IAAP (the international association of a11y pros) on a11y overlays: https://www.accessibilityassociation.org/s/overlay-position-and-recommendations
• Brief introduction to WCAG3.0: https://faisalonline.com/the-future-of-web-accessibility-wcag-3-0.html

Feedback and accessibility #

• Aria-owns is not robust: https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2022/02/28/not-so-short-note-on-being-owned/
• Aria-describedby, weak support too: https://adrianroselli.com/2022/04/accessible-description-exposure.html
• Feedback on the early consideration of A11y at Minnesota state level: https://mn.gov/mnit/about-mnit/accessibility/news/?id= 38-522146
• Creating focus for a design system, pretty: https://adhoc.team/2022/02/08/creating-focus-style-for-themable-design-system/
• The position of headers in html and a11y tables: https://adrianroselli.com/2022/02/column-headers-and-browser-support.html
• Make fieldset radio buttons required and invalid, support: https://adrianroselli.com/2022/02/support-for-marking-radio-buttons-required-invalid.html

Accessibility strategy #

• ABSOLUTELY fab, a11y acceptance criteria for web components and native app: https://www.magentaa11y.com/
• Make good use of aria roles to satisfy WCAG 4.1.2 role, name, value: https://ericwbailey.design/writing/it-needs-to-map-back-to-a-role/
• A11y best practices when contracting: https://github.com/mgifford/a11y-contracting#accessibility-contracting-best-practices
• The a11y setup strategy book: https://www.thebookonaccessibility.com/
• Start the a11y when you are a dev, the basics: https://www.makeuseof.com/what-every-programmer-should-know-about-digital-accessibility/
• Comparing major JS frameworks: https://dev.to/steady5063/accessibility-in-javascript-frameworks-part-2-comparing-each-framework-41ch
• The a11y and fine motor impairments: https://theweco.com/accessibility-limited-fine-motor/
• Cognitive impairment and movement: https://www.tpgi.com/the-impact-of-motion-animation-on-cognitive-disability/

Test accessibility #

• Test with voice recognition the A11y, to read: https://www.tpgi.com/testing-with-speech-recognition/
• Introduction to the W3c ACT Rules: https://www.boia.org/blog/understanding-the-w3cs-accessibility-conformance-testing-act-requirements
• A11y, test in Github with Actions: https://www.adrianbolonio.com/en/accessibility-github-actions/
• Monitoring A11y method by tests at gov.uk, interesting: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/accessibility-monitoring-how-we-test
• Using the accessible Dom (accessibility tree) for testing: https://giovanicamara.com/blog/how-to-use-the-accessibility-tree-for-a11y-testing/
• Neat, a11y test strategy in CD/CI: https://blog-testproject-io.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/blog.testproject.io/2022/02/07/accessibility-testing-best-practices-in-ci-cd/?amp=1
• Can we test the a11y without a screen reader: https://www.digitala11y.com/do-we-need-screen-reader-for-accessibility-testing/
• Some info on the automation possibilities of the a11y and on the tools: https://a11y-automation.dev/
• Simple tests to improve a11y: https://www.boia.org/blog/4-simple-ways-to-improve-web-accessibility
• Document a11y issues part 1 and 2, to read: https://convergeaccessibility.com/2022/01/24/how-to-document-accessibility-issues-part-1/ and https://convergeaccessibility.com/2022/03/28/how-to-document-accessibility-issues-part-2/

Technical points in accessibility #

• An accessible dynamic search module, nice example: https://www.scottohara.me/blog/2022/02/05/dynamic-results.html
• All about alternatives to images in Twitter: https://twitter.com/TwitterA11y/status/1501603777006260226
• 3 tips to make your content dynamically generated accessible: https://www.boia.org/blog/dynamically-generated-content-and-accessibility-3-quick-tips
• Landmarks, an overview: https://tetralogical.com/blog/2022/03/18/landmarks/
• aria-labelledby full details of this magic attribute: https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2022/04/03/aria-labelledby-usage-notes/
• Great article on <div> and a11y, to read: https://www.scottohara.me/blog/2022/01/20/divisive.html
• HTML semantics: https://gomakethings.com/html-semantics/
• Use ARIA live regions: https://www.scottohara.me/blog/2022/02/05/are-we-live.html
• Color contrast and a11y, the basis: https://tetralogical.com/blog/2022/02/04/colour-contrast
• Information conveyed by color, the basis: https://tetralogical.com/blog/2022/02/15/colour-meaning/
• Time limits, the basis: https://tetralogical.com/blog/2022/03/07/session-timeouts/
• Headings & headings: https://tetralogical.com/blog/2022/02/28/headings/
• Tableau and a11y, the basics: https://www.theguardian.com/info/2022/feb/22/turning-the-tables-on-accessibility
• Another top 10 errors from a11y: https://www.tpgi.com/ten-common-web-accessibility-issues/
• Quick wins a11y: https://css-tricks.com/5-accessibility-quick-wins-you-can-implement-today/

Mobile app, mobile web #

• ADA accessible native apps and therefore WCAG2.1, a white paper: https://info.usablenet.com/inclusive-ada-ux-mobile-app-accessibility-principles-wcag2.1
• Testing a11y mobile with VoiceOver: https://www.boia.org/blog/how-apple-voiceover-is-used-for-mobile-accessibility-testing
• Building accessible mobile apps: https://increment.com/mobile/best-practices-for-building-accessible-mobile-apps/

Ergonomics, UI & UX #

• A great guide to accessibility for designers, a MUST read: https://stephaniewalter.design/blog/a-designers-guide-to-documenting-accessibility-user-interactions/
• Difference between inclusive design and accessibility design, to read: https://www.boia.org/blog/inclusive-design-vs.-accessible-design-understanding-the-differences
• Using Figma's A11y annotation kit to design a11y: https://medium.com/designing-atlassian/create-accessible-designs-using-the-figma-a11y-annotation-kit-35371f00dac5
• Documenting the design system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpDF3ShKYZQ
• Use the right vocabulary when doing user testing: https://axesslab.com/testing-a-scary-word/
• Font accessibility and readability, the basics: https://business.scope.org.uk/article/font-accessibility-and-readability-the-basics/

Resources #

• List of resources following CSUN2022, the a11y conference that refers to: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Tgmba0L6Z0BkHu9Hb3jlZ3IweguAdrja649rzk8X_Dk/
• a11y's best practices for those with fine motor disabilities: https://theweco.com/accessibility-limited-fine-motor/
• People with digital disabilities: https://www.lexdis.org.uk/2022/04/personas/
• Videos on technical aids and internet browsing: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTqm2yVMMUKVxQ6eYth4_vvbM3IcrSPlk
• Another article on a11y overlays (fr): https://oclock.io/blog/5820/les-outils-de-surcouche-daccessibilite-cest-quoi
• More a11y myths: https://alvaromontoro.com/blog/67989/myths-about-web-accessibility
• Choose your LMS with built-in a11y: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ziqgBvu2WBG99uaUEuckqFpxMxvvtSw0/edit
• Proof that a11y's overlays are in the hot seat: https://adrianroselli.com/2022/03/overlays-underwhelm-a11y-nyc.html
• And hop, a headshot for Facil'iti: https://adrianroselli.com/2022/03/faciliti-will-get-you-sued.html

Others #

• Awesome! play and fix your code to make it accessible: https://a11yphant.com/
• Just Nice: https://daverupert.com/2022/04/what-if-everything-got-better/