Digital accessibility watch February - March 2023

In this month of March, the French report on the European directive on web a11y is here, but what a disappointment: (fr) https://koena.net/rapport-de-la-france-a-la-commission-europeenne-sur-la-directive-accessibilite-web-regles-du-jeu-modifiees/. In parallel, the transposition of the European act on the accessibility of products and services has also been released ((fr) https://access42.net/transposition-directive-europeenne-ue-2019-882-accessibilite-produits-services). A huge hope to see things improve for people with disabilities, but, well, we have to see what will come out of it ((fr) https://access42.net/impact-directive-europeenne-ue-2019-882-accessibilite-numerique, https://www.yanous.com/news/editorial/edito230303.html and
https://acteurspublics.fr/articles/christian-volle-les-manquements-aux-obligations-daccessibilite-numerique-doivent-enfin-etre-sanctionnes)

Funny: the EN 301549 standard (the European standard from WCAG 2.2) used in Australia (https://www.accessibility.org.au/policy/australian-policy/)!

Happy spring reading!

Accessibility in laws and standards #

• Thoughts around SC 2.4.11 WCAG focus appearance in WCAG 2.2: https://alastairc.uk/2023/02/focus-appearance-thoughts/
• Death of SC 4.1.1 validity of the code in WCA4G 2.2: https://medium.com/eleven-ways/the-troublesome-life-and-lamentable-death-of-success-criterion-4-1-1-ebc57ce31191
• Legal obligations in France (fr): https://ideance.net/blog/293/loi-accessibilite-numerique-france/
• Laws on a11y around the world (updated, March 2023): https://www.lflegal.com/2013/05/gaad-legal-2/
• WCAG 2.2 latest advancement: https://www.deque.com/blog/wcag-2-2-is-at-the-candidate-recommendation-stage/
• Size of interactive areas SC 2.5.5 overview: https://craftcms.com/blog/accessible-target-sizes
• Simply, SC 2.4.11 explained, good one: https://alastairc.uk/2023/02/focus-appearance-thoughts/

Feedback and accessibility #

• Support for HTML semantics, to read: https://www.tpgi.com/screen-readers-support-for-text-level-html-semantics/
• Tables, merged cells and a11y, to read: https://adrianroselli.com/2023/02/avoid-spanning-table-headers.html
• Special characters and screen readers, state of the art: https://elevenways.be/en/articles/screenreaders-special-characters

Accessibility Strategy #

• Strategic framework to improve a11y: https://webaim.org/articles/strategicframework/
• An a11y design system to be more efficient: https://gerireid.com/accessibility.html
• Setting up a mindset a11y: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2023/02/keys-accessibility-mindset/
• Interesting calculation on the cost of not being accessible: https://karlgroves.com/understanding-the-cost-of-not-being-accessible/
• Audit a11y, yes, but not only...: https://www.digitala11y.com/connecting-dots-of-an-accessibility-audit/

Test accessibility #

• Comparing between a11y test tools: https://racheleditullio.com/blog/2023/01/comparing-level-access-automated-tools-to-manual-accessibility-testing/
• Another tools comparison a11y: https://racheleditullio.com/blog/2023/01/comparing-level-access-automated-tools-to-manual-accessibility-testing/
• Auditor by components of a library: https://racheleditullio.com/blog/2023/01/component-library-accessibility-audit/
• Automated testing phases: https://dev.to/steady5063/a-practical-approach-to-automated-accessibility-1h88
• Non regression tests in a11y: https://dev.to/steady5063/automated-accessibility-part-3-regression-tests-53cc
• Do we need a screen reader for a11y's tests: https://www.digitala11y.com/do-we-need-screen-reader-for-accessibility-testing/
• Reflections on the future of auto testing in a11y: https://karlgroves.com/automation-is-not-the-enemy/

Technical points in accessibility #

• Create an accessible link, the base: https://www.a11yproject.com/posts/creating-valid-and-accessible-links/

• When :focus-visible is visible, makes the point: https://bitsofco.de/when-is-focus-visible-visible/?s=09

• For native accessible hiding: https://benmyers.dev/blog/native-visually-hidden/

• Against native accessible hiding: https://www.webaxe.org/we-dont-need-visually-hidden/

• Some problematic UI components in a11y: https://www.a11yproject.com/posts/a-guide-to-troublesome-ui-components/

• 5 Mistakes in Image Alternatives: https://www.a11yproject.com/posts/are-you-making-these-five-mistakes-when-writing-alt-text/

• Accessible carousels: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2023/02/guide-building-accessible-carousels/

• The a11y form validation, complete: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2023/02/guide-accessible-form-validation/

• HTML or ARIA, beware: https://adrianroselli.com/2023/02/aria-vs-html.html

• Pointer gestures, definitions, everything is explained: https://tetralogical.com/blog/2023/03/17/foundations-pointer-gestures/

• Make accessible and custom sliders, nice: https://www.tpgi.com/evolving-custom-sliders/

• HTML form a11y: https://www.deque.com/axe-con/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/structuring-accessible-forms-1.pdf

• UI components in CSS are inaccessible: https://adrianroselli.com/2023/03/css-only-widgets-are-inaccessible.html

• Accessibility of external links, complete: https://www.digitala11y.com/external-links-in-or-out/

  Mobile app, mobile web #

• A mobile app and a11y newsletter, you have to register: https://accessible-mobile-apps-weekly.ghost.io/

• Getting started with Talkback: https://www.a11yproject.com/posts/getting-started-talkback/

• A whole site on native mobile and web apps: https://appt.org/en

Ergonomics, UI & UX #

• 7 things & designers on a11y need to know: https://medium.com/salesforce-ux/7-things-every-designer-needs-to-know-about-accessibility-64f105f0881b
• Do design reviews of your models: https://adhoc.team/2023/02/22/the-importance-of-adding-accessibility-design-reviews-to-the-design-process/
• Model a11y annotations: https://noti.st/cariefisher/Bin4xT/essential-accessibility-annotations-for-a-smoother-design-to-development-handoff#sprK2tQ
• UX best practices for subtitles: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2023/01/closed-captions-subtitles-ux/

Resources #

• Little tips for the a11y, super: https://bite-sized-a11y.com/
• Create accessible with inclusive design: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/learn-to-create-accessible-websites-with-the-principles-of-universal-design
• How-to display Braille in NVDA, JAWS and VoiceOver: https://adrianroselli.com/2023/01/jaws-nvda-and-voiceover-braille-viewers.html
• Handy semantic HTML cheat sheet (e&n): https://webaim.org/resources/htmlcheatsheet/
• Large list of resources (fr): https://ideance.net/fr/ressources-accessibilite-numerique/
• Auto captions, an inventory and guidelines: https://equalentry.com/automatic-captions-experiments-best-practices/
• Guide to perform an a11y audit: https://www.digitala11y.com/a-definitive-guide-on-how-to-perform-a-web-accessibility-audit/
• Manual audits a11y, the guide: https://blog.pope.tech/2023/03/01/a-beginners-guide-to-manual-accessibility-testing/

Others #

• a11y and attention deficit disorder: https://uxdesign.cc/software-accessibility-for-users-with-attention-deficit-disorder-adhd-f32226e6037c
• Mastodon how-to, images and alternatives: https://pathofex.com/how-to-add-alt-text-to-images-on-mastodon/
• Roman numerals and speech synthesis: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/03/unicode-roman-numerals-and-screen-readers/